


Love With The Proper Stranger

by saintjoy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coincidences, Daddy Kink, Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, Minor Injuries, New York City, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Smoking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-01-21 04:52:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 33,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1538276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saintjoy/pseuds/saintjoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi was never a fan of kissing scenes in romantic movies, but that didn't stop him from leaning over the emergency brake and taking Erwin's lips with his own. Apparently, through all his little notes and schemes, Erwin hadn't been expecting such forwardness, at least not this evening; he froze for a moment before letting his fingers cup Levi's jaw, barely touching the skin but doing just enough to bring him closer. Out of habit, Levi nipped on Erwin's bottom lip as he stood on his knees and tried his best to avoid knocking his head into the ceiling of the car.</p><p>He didn't move into Erwin's lap. By the second time he breathed out, Levi retreated with a slight flush on his face. He fumbled for the handle and muttered a quiet, "Good night," before slamming the car door behind him and hurrying up the steps to his home. He looked back once to see Erwin still with his arm looped around the back of the passenger's seat, still with a hint of lust in his eyes as he stared at Levi at the top of the stairs. Levi didn't invite him inside, and didn't call him when he finally drove away from the curb.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Oh shit. Guess who's writing things again.
> 
> Thoroughly beta'd by [the bae](http://krispleana.tumblr.com/).

The local recreational officer hadn't swept yet. Wet leaves stuck to every surface, painting the benches with subdued oranges and reds. Though the rain had ceased to a mere haze over the city, women still clung to their umbrellas as they walked against the wind and boys tugged up the cuffs of their loose jeans so they wouldn't drag through puddles of rainwater. The clouds were still so thick overhead that one couldn't tell if it was closer to 6 o'clock in the morning or 6 o'clock at night.

Levi knew, though, when he checked his cellphone and decided that it was a good time to get some dinner. Of course, only after one or two more songs. Though autumn's bite was turning the edges of his cheeks red, Levi leafed through the papers he had tucked into a folder. Each was in a plastic protector, sealed at the edges and cloudy in places from continuous water damage; the paper inside was pristine as the day he'd purchased it, and for that reason he could overlook the imperfections of the covering.

He propped the paper up on the page holder and twisted the wet wires so they kept it in place. His fingertips were red and wrinkled from grazing over the same keys for hours on end, but it was a Saturday and he'd have a hot bath once he got home. The letters that preceded the lines of bars and notes were smeared in places, but still Levi muttered the song title and composer as if he was performing at Lincoln Center. One could dream, he supposed.

Levi would have liked to think that the second he started playing, everyone out of what few people were in the park would turn their heads and gaze in wonder as his fingers glided over the piano keys, and the ambience of cars revving and voices chattering and airplanes flying overhead would fall away to the steady music. He was terribly aware of his reality, though, and how no matter how skilled he became, he was just a nameless stranger playing a dirty piano put there by some richer philanthropist who needed a reason to sleep at night. His picture wasn't plastered all over fliers that pimply teenagers taped onto plywood walls around construction sites for community service credit. No women gawked at his beauty with his talent ringing in their ears and begged him to sign their naked breasts, but here Levi edged on the absurd. He had no interest in such a loud culture.

Some attention would've been nice once in a while, though. Then again, Levi's bitchy grandmother always told him to be careful what he wished for. Levi never regarded anything said bitchy grandmother ever spewed at him, mainly because she regarded his preferred fashion choices as ones that made him look like "a piece of shit ground into the cement" while thrusting a bag full of pastel cashmere sweaters into his arms. But, it was when a wrinkly dollar bill appeared on the piano lid that he reconsidered.

He stopped on a flat note that made him grit his teeth, but at least it was enough to startle the guy metaphorically making it rain on his goddamn piano. Levi reached over and dragged the dollar across the surface, knocking down some gritty leaves in the process, and crumpled it in his fist. He turned around and aimed a dirty look at the stranger, who was attempting to make his escape before Levi could notice him.

"Hey, asshole." The man kept walking, hands stuffed into the pockets of his wool coat. Levi's fist tightened. "Don't make me repeat myself. I'm talking to you."

At that, the stranger paused and turned around. Levi couldn't see the color of his hair under his knit toque. He pointed at himself, raising an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Who else would I be talking to?" There he had a point: no one else was nearby. "What do you take me for?" Levi asked, waving the dollar around in the air. "Do I have a can or a sign asking for change? I'm not a charity case."

"Oh," the man replied, the pink creeping up on his cheeks visible to Levi as he approached and took a hand out of his pocket. "My apologies. I must've been mistaken."

"Damn straight," Levi snarled, releasing the dollar before the stranger even had a handle on it. Since his song had already been interrupted, he found no use in continuing to play; he snatched the sheet music from the wires and slid it back into his folder before standing. The stranger was still standing there, and when Levi looked up at him – resenting the fact that he had to do so with his short stature – he looked disappointed. "What?"

"I didn't mean for you to stop playing. I was quite enjoying it."

Levi squinted. His voice had an affect to it. German? Probably some tourist who'd turn to his scavenger hunt card and nick off "donate to the homeless" as soon as he managed to get away. "I was just about to leave, either way. It doesn't matter." He didn't allow the man to continue the conversation any further, for, with a low scoff of a goodbye, he walked off with folder of music sheets in hand. There was a good diner on the West Side he could stop at before heading home.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn't raining the next week, but the local recreational officer still hadn't swept yet. Children sprinted about, throwing leaves at each other and shrieking at the top of their lungs as their mothers and fathers scurried about trying to control them. The wind tore the clouds apart and exposed the blue sky, stark against the grey buildings and sunset-colored trees. As worn and rotten the piano bench was, Levi admitted, it was more comfortable when it wasn't soaked with filthy rainwater. Still, it creaked under his weight as he shuffled in and set his folder beside him. Somewhere not so far away from the park, church bells rang five times before falling silent again.

"Franz Liszt," he muttered under his breath, taking out the appropriate page and placing it in front of him, "'La Campanella.'" Yet, Levi couldn't tap out the first chord before noticing a vague familiarity nearby: same wool coat, but this time the stranger from last Saturday was wearing a newsboy cap. As he approached, Levi could see a few locks of blonde hair framing his cheekbones. Definitely German.

Though his mouth remained a straight line, the corners of his eyes crinkled as if it was the widest grin he could manage. He gave a slight nod to Levi, and passed him to sit at a bench not a few yards away. Levi sent him a glare that would freeze the blood of any regular human being, but apparently this guy was either dense as hell, or mocking Levi as if he were a child: the only response he got in return was a slight widening of the man's thin lips. Great. A one-person audience. Damn tourists.

Levi opened his mouth to speak, but as the stranger leaned his elbows on his knees and folded his hands, he let his jaw close again. Fine, if he wanted to have a listen? Why not. As long as he wasn't going to drop a roll of Jacksons into his lap when he had his fill.

He repeated the composer's name and the work, and began to play. The sound of a few teenagers scraping the wheels of their skateboards over the pavement didn't grow any more quiet, and the cries of an inexperienced dog walker trying to restrain the puppies on the ends of the eight or so leashes still drummed on the back of Levi's head. The stranger a few yards away, though, was silent. Levi kept his eyes on the sheet music and the black and white keys that made paper notes into sound.

The last chord was met with a quiet applause that jerked Levi back into reality. He turned to the stranger, who'd since taken off his cap to reveal his neatly parted blonde hair. Heavy palms and thick fingers clapped for a few seconds more before silence fell again. Levi pressed his lips together. Was this cockwad going to be sticking around for his entire set? As he took another song out and replaced the one already played, the man didn't move, and Levi assumed the answer to his question was an unfortunate yes. Well, then, so be it. If the fucker wanted to waste his time listening to Levi play, who was Levi to argue?

**  
**(The attention wasn't the worst thing in the world.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This already has 15 kudos what the fuck


	3. Chapter 3

The pages of Levi's desk calendar dwindled, and the sun was setting earlier and earlier by the week. There were more leaves on the ground than clinging to the thin tree branches; the local recreational officer had yet to prove he existed at all. The street lamps already were giving off a warm glow that cast dark shadows behind Levi's fingers as he played away, unfazed by the stale chill that rested upon the city. All other people had since scurried into their homes and put a pot of water on the stove to make some tea, or danced into nightclubs wearing garish shirts covered in sequins, or climbed up to their dorms, slamming heavy textbooks onto their desks and sitting down to study for the rest of the night.

It was a calming absence of noise. It was just Levi drumming against the keys, the strings vibrating in the body of the piano, and, after each song ended, the one-person applause from the bench a few yards away. He and the stranger didn't exchange many words: the stranger would wish him a good afternoon and a good night, and Levi would mutter the songs and composers under his breath. He wasn't even sure if the man could hear him from the distance he sat at, but to him it didn't really matter, either way. If anything, it was a habitual formality; nothing more.

Levi finished his last piece for the night with elbows bent and back curved over the keys, locking his fingers in place for eight beats before removing them. Like all other Saturday evenings, he took the sheet music off the holder and slid it back into his bag, and like all other Saturday evenings, he glanced at the stranger with feigned disinterest before adjusting the way his coat sat on around his neck. Unlike all other Saturday evenings, however, the stranger stood and met him at the piano bench before he walked back home.

"Would you like to go out to dinner?"

Levi pursed his lips. He kept a firm hold on his bag and looked over his shoulder before turning around. "Why?"

"Because, simply put," the man shrugged with that line-smile and his eyes crinkling at the corners, "monotony is tiresome after a while."

They went out for dinner.

 

Levi wondered to himself why he was the one taking the stranger to some place to eat, since he wasn't the one who asked in the first place, but as they turned a corner and slipped into the diner Levi always ate at on Saturday nights, he dropped the question in favor of glancing over the menu. It was a rather useless gesture, in hindsight – he practically had it memorized, for fuck's sake – but Mr. Tall, Blonde and Handsome seemed to be taking his time, so the least Levi could do was humor usual restaurant etiquette. Petra came by a few minutes later and greeted him with a smile, her pad of paper for order-taking not even in her hand. She realized her mistake soon after noticing the stranger's presence, and with a more excitable demeanor she asked for their orders.

"The usual," Levi said, voice blank as was normal. He passed his menu toward her, then unfolded his napkin robotically before placing it in his lap. He didn't keep his attention up long enough to listen to what the stranger was ordering, but what he did hear was Petra coming in close and whispering,

"Boyfriend?"

He aimed a cold glare at her. "Fuck off."

She snickered under her breath, and went on her way.

 

Levi drummed his fingers on the table to the tune of the cool jazz playing through the cheap speakers overhead, glancing over at the stranger from time to time. He was on his phone.

"For a person who was so eager to have dinner with a complete stranger, you’d think you would bother to at least keep yourself engaged in the moment," he commented, turning up his nose at the man across from him.

He looked up, the whites of his eyes disproportionately large to his irises. Blue irises. "Forgive me. It was of importance."

"Your wife worried about you?" His voice had a hint of disdain he didn't mean to express.

The stranger shook his head as he pocketed his phone. "Sorry to say, I'm a bachelor." He leaned his elbows on the table and rested his chin on his hands, staring Levi head-on with a smirk in his eyes. "My focus is fully on you, now."

"Wonderful." Levi picked up his fork and wiped a spot from one of the tines. "Why did you invite me out for dinner?"

"Why did you accept my invitation?"

Damn him. Levi flicked the tines of the fork with his fingernail, idly listening to the different notes they produced when struck. "Monotony is tiresome after a while."

"Clever," the man remarked. "My name is Erwin. Erwin Smith."

Not as German as he expected. "Levi."

"Do you have a last name?"

"Not as far as you're concerned."

A busboy brought around a couple of glasses and poured some ice water into each, spilling some onto the table before he went on his way. Levi took his napkin from his lap and wiped it up.

"Not a man of many words, are you?"

He glanced up at Erwin and raised an eyebrow. "There's not much to say. You're some creep who's been watching me play for the past month and a half. I've blindly accepted your questionable invitation for dinner. Within the next two hours, I'm entirely sure you'll be trying to get your dirty mitts under my clothes. Were you expecting me to treat you like an old friend from college I just happened to run into?" The fork was back in Levi's hands and the sound of his fingernail hitting the metal rang discordant with the music playing overhead. "Well, here you are. I'm treating you exactly how I would anyone else."

A grin split the straight line on Erwin's face. He held his thumbs to his lips as he chuckled, shrugging off his coat and ridding himself of the thick scarf knotted around his neck. "So you're not a college student, I'm guessing. That's comforting."

Levi frowned. "Don't remark on my age."

"Why not? How old are you?"

"I was born in the year that is not your fucking business." Again, he chuckled. "Stop laughing, you're splashing your water everywhere like a child."

Erwin set down his glass and folded his fingers again, amusement plain in his eyes in a way that grated on Levi's nerves. "I'm thirty-seven, if that's the deal breaker for you."

"It's not."

By some godsend, Petra made her reappearance before Erwin could probe him further. She set Levi's burger and plate of fries in front of him and Erwin's plate of sausage, eggs and toast in front of him – who ordered breakfast food at 6:30 at night? Foreigners, Levi thought to himself, as he cut his burger in half and dug in.

It only took a few bites for him to realize that Erwin was staring at him. His food lay untouched, his utensils still wrapped in the napkin and bound by the paper tape. Levi's chewing slowed, but swallowing didn't occur to him when he spoke again.

"Are you waiting for my permission?" A few flecks of burger flew out of his mouth as he talked. He dabbed the excess from his lips with his napkin.

"You mock me for spilling a bit of water when you talk with your mouth full?" Erwin teased.

"Am I dining with the queen of fucking England?" Even so, Levi swallowed and took a sip of his water. He reached for the bottle of ketchup between them and squirted it over his fries before taking a few and eating them in one bite. He sucked the grease from the tips of his fingers and found Erwin still staring at him from across the table. "Are you going to eat, or do you just have a fetish for watching my every movement?"

At that, Erwin picked up his fork and knife and took the blackened ends off his sausage. He averted his gaze – probably to avoid stabbing himself in the face with a slice of meat and making a fool out of himself, Levi remarked to himself – and the sounds of them eating prevailed over conversation. At some point, the quiet jazz music gave way to some party music crap that belonged in the nightclubs to which Levi never went and for which he never developed an appreciation like all his colleagues did several years ago. He tuned it out in favor of running the memory of a newer piece he was learning over in his head, until, of course, he ended up repeating the second bridge a dozen times over and grew tired of it.

"What were you humming?"

The last few fries on his plate were just touching his lips when Erwin asked the question. Levi set them down and squinted. "I wasn't humming."

"Yes, you were. For quite a while. A new song?"

"What does it matter?" Levi bit down on the fries and swallowed them. He wiped his hands clean with the crumpled napkin from his lap and took out a small bottle of hand sanitizer from the side pocket of his bag.

"It sounded nice," Erwin commented. By some miracle, from how little Levi noticed him actually ingesting the food put in front of him, his plate was empty, and from how Erwin leaned against the table it must have been for some time. "I look forward to hearing it."

Levi didn't respond, choosing to rub the scented sanitizer between his hands instead of meeting Erwin's piercing gaze again. Another busboy soon came around and cleared their dishes away, leaving just the glasses that had more dew sweating down the sides than what was actually lying inside. Petra came soon after that, holding a folded square of a menu in her hand. She asked if Erwin wanted dessert, for Levi never once gave her an affirmative answer; he said yes, and with a polite smile she set the menu in front of Erwin and left. Erwin glanced at it for all of two seconds before folding it back up again and placing it near the edge of the table.

"Not a fan of sweets?"

"They're unnecessary." Levi rested his chin in his palm and stared out the window. It was already dark enough for the window to become a mirror, so the only image Levi was greeted with was that of his own furrowed brow and half-lidded eyes. He looked back to Erwin. He was on his phone again. Levi sighed through his nose and swirled his fingertip over the rim of his water glass.

 

When Petra dropped the check off at the table, Levi and Erwin took out their wallets at the same time. The line-smile was back as the latter unfolded his wallet and took out a few bills.

"I have it covered. I am the one who asked you out for dinner, after all."

"Please," Levi scoffed, placing a pair of twenties over the bill, "I'm not a charity case. I can pay very well for my own dinner."

"And for mine as well?" Erwin asked, his eyebrows coming together. "How generous."

"Are you looking down on me?" Petra swung by and picked up the money and check before Erwin could insist on paying any further. "I have more cash than you think, asshole."

"I'm sure." Was he being sarcastic? Fuck if Levi knew. For most of their exchanges, his voice never wavered out of a range of about four or five notes, and Levi couldn't tell shit from his facial expressions – or lack thereof, for that matter. As if you can talk, a voice whispered from the back of his head.

"Good." He bit the frayed skin from his bottom lip, folding his arms over his chest. He realized as the acrylic fabric crinkled at the elbows that he never took off his coat.

 

The wind had started to kick up by the time Levi and Erwin left the diner. Levi burrowed into the collar of his jacket while Erwin slipped on his knit toque, and for a moment considered that buying one for himself might be a good idea. It looked warm. And in retrospect Levi's decision to get the underside of his head shaved as temperatures dropped into wintertime chilliness wasn't a fantastic idea. Erwin turned to him, a gloved hand held out toward him.

"I enjoyed dinner," he said, voice soft. "I hope this excursion wasn't too troublesome for you."

"Whatever." Levi took Erwin's hand and shook it, no matter how cold the wind that nipped at his knuckles. "It wasn't unbearable."

Another one of his light chuckles. "Would you like someone to accompany you back home?"

Levi dropped his hand and smacked it away. "I'm not a woman."

"I didn't say you were."

"You're not going to be invited into my house."

"I wasn't even considering the notion."

His eyebrows came together, as did his lips. The wind knifed at his cheeks enough to turn them a pretty shade of pink that looked like the sky at sunset in combination with the orange streetlight that illuminated the sidewalk. He turned around and the two of them started walking down the block.

 

In someone's backyard, a cocktail party emitted a symphony of people chattering and giggling in the most piercing pitch Levi ever had the displeasure of hearing. Only a few cars drove down the single lane streets every once in a while, so at every corner they approached Levi merely crossed whether the traffic light suggested it or not, leaving Erwin to keep up with his pace. However short his legs were, he still managed to tire out most people from just a few minutes of walking together. As they continued into Levi's neighborhood, the ambience of the city gave way to the silence he coveted, and when he climbed the steps to his townhouse Erwin remained on the sidewalk, staring up at him. Levi shoved his hands into his pockets and searched around for his keys; upon conjuring them, he turned back to glance at Erwin and scraped the metal teeth against the side of his finger out of an idle habit.

"I said I wasn't going to invite you in."

"I'm aware of that."

Levi chewed on the inside of his cheek and squinted down at Erwin. The steps gave him a good yard's height on him which, while he was loath to admit it, added some leverage to his words. "We're just going to say good night and you'll be off my back until you come to bother me next Saturday evening."

Erwin shifted his weight and aimed a smirk at Levi. "Of course."

"What train are you taking?"

He scratched the back of his neck. "From here? Just the C, I believe."

Levi frowned and flinched when he realized he'd been sawing into his own skin. He sucked on the wound and clutched the key in his other hand. "Brooklyn?"

"Yes, Ocean Hill."

He scoffed under his breath. "How pretentious."

"Says the one who lives in the West Village." He was still smirking.

Levi rolled his eyes. "I told you I had more money than you'd think, shithead."

"Indeed you did."

Levi turned around and inserted his key into the knob, the wind seeping through the fabric of his jacket and his legs getting shaky from spending more time than was needed on this asshole. He grit his teeth together as he said, "Go home."

"Good night."

He slammed the door behind him, and didn't look out the window to see how long Erwin stood there before he finally departed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally this relationship is kicking off
> 
> Thanks for the kudos and comments! c:


	4. Chapter 4

 

Levi cracked his neck as he buttoned up his dress shirt, staring at his reflection in the body mirror hanging up on the wall. The folds were perfectly ironed, no creases or wrinkles out of place. He shuffled his dress pants on and secured them with a thin leather belt, and took up a pair of suspenders the same color and stretched them over and behind his torso, as well. The window above his radiator was foggy from the pouring rain outside. A grimace crossed his face as he looked out at the streets below, busy with cars and multicolored umbrellas hurrying along to get to wherever they needed to go. In a way, Levi was lucky he lived close enough to work that he had no need for a car, but it was days like these that made him wish he could justify taking the train all of a half mile to the university. Rain was dreadful; all it did was make students even more miserable when coming to school on a Monday morning.

He took his lesson plan for the day from his desk, sealed up in a plastic folder for safety, and tucked it into his leather messenger bag. He poured the remaining tea in his mug down the sink and scraped the leaves into the garbage, but he kept the excess water in the kettle on the stove for when he got home three or four hours later. On his working days, Levi kept his scruffy windbreaker on the coat hanger in favor of a simple peacoat: as little as he cared of what strangers thought of his manner of dress, he needed to maintain professionalism if he wanted to keep any semblance of respect from the hundreds of undergrads he taught every week.

The door creaked as Levi shut it behind him. He opened his umbrella before a drop of rain soiled his coat, but before he could go on his way a white rectangle sticking out of a potted plant at the foot of the steps called his attention. Levi puzzled over it as he bent down and picked it up, brushing the dirt and rain away. An idiotic way to deliver the mail, he would have thought, if there was a stamp on the corner or even a return address on the other.

Luckily, Erwin had half a mind to line the inside of the envelope with plastic before dropping it off.

"When did that fucker…," Levi muttered. He held the heavy umbrella in the crook of his elbow as he unfolded the letter, written on looseleaf in black ink. An address, a time, a phone number, a request. "Is he fucking serious?" Atlantic Avenue, 8 o'clock P.M. this Saturday, ten digits, call to confirm. Levi folded up the letter and shoved it into his coat pocket, looking around to make sure Erwin wasn't about to leap out from behind a bush or inside a car and demand an answer. A sigh escaped his nose, and Levi was on his way.

 

He called the number once he'd dismissed his class twenty minutes earlier than scheduled. It rang five times before forwarding him to the answering machine, and Levi hung up. His phone buzzed the second he'd placed it in his breast pocket, as he was opening his umbrella to depart for home. He let it buzz five times before he picked up, biting on his bottom lip.

"You called?" His voice was deeper over the phone than in person. It sent a shiver down Levi's spine to which he couldn't assign an emotion.

"What's the meaning of this?"

"Of what, Levi?" The way he sounded genuinely concerned only served to irritate Levi further.

"The fucking letter, shitbag. When did you even leave it?"

"After you went inside the other night, of course."

"So I'm meant to believe you carry stationary and plastic wrap everywhere with you?"

At that, Erwin paused for a moment. "It's often needed for my line of work."

"And that would be…?"

"A business analyst."

"A business analyst," Levi repeated, the words sticking to his tongue and lips with contempt. "Fascinating."

He could hear the shrug on the other end of the conversation. "It pays well."

Levi held off on responding as he crossed the street, fumbling to keep his umbrella held in one hand and his bag from getting soaked by the rain. He jumped back from the opposite curb as a truck drove into a puddle, splashing the water onto a few poor pedestrians that shrieked and swore at the stains on their stockings and pants. "No shit, you live in one of the most gentrified neighborhoods known to the United States."

"And you live in the one that surpasses it tenfold," Erwin replied, voice steady. "What do you do for a living?"

"You know what? Perhaps this conversation would be better suited for when the sky hasn't decided to take a leak on all of New York. Right now, just tell me why the hell you thought inviting me over to your house would be an idea." The boulevard and all its busyness receded as Levi turned the corner and approached his house. His knuckles were white from how he clenched onto the handle of his umbrella. Erwin was about to respond, but a car passed him by and drowned out the words coming through the speaker. "What did you just say?"

"Far from it, sorry to say," Erwin repeated. "I suppose you could call it a club of sorts."

"I hate clubs," Levi said disdainfully.

"Well, allow me a moment to explain. You're not one for surprises or spontaneity, are you?"

He scoffed. "I'm not a fan of beating around the bush until the fucking thing is dead. Just say what you mean before I hang up on you."

"It's a concert. By a rising orchestral group, playing some of Astor Píazzolla…?" Erwin trailed off, but Levi wasn't about to interrupt and save him. "I'm personally not a fan, but I figured anything I would be interested in would deter you grotesquely."

Levi frowned, climbing the steps to his house and jingling the keys in search for the right one. "What are you interested in?"

"Oh, so this is the deal breaker?" Damn that smirk in his voice. "Punk and indie rock, with a touch of alternative rock here and there."

He slammed the door behind him a bit louder than he expected. "Remind me to never to ask you for music recommendations." Umbrella in the basket, coat on the hanger, bag slung over the chair. Levi turned on the stove to let the water in the kettle come to a boil again. Erwin laughed over the phone and unlike his subtle chuckles that sounded like they were played off the same recording every time they were needed, his laughter was authentic. For a moment a smirk tugged at the corner of Levi's lips.

Erwin's laughter gave way to conversation once more. "You sound like an old man."

"I'm younger than you, jackass."

"Oh? How old are you?"

Déjà vu. Levi took a mug out of the cabinet overhead and wiped it clean with a handkerchief hung on a metal hook just below it. "Thirty-five."

"Not that much younger," Erwin remarked.

"Old enough for most people to get the most shitfaced look of disbelief whenever I tell them."

"I'd take that as a compliment."

"It's not very complimentary when your own fucking students question your authority on the first day of classes, and sometimes for a few after that."

"Ah, you're a teacher then." He said it so smugly. The kettle whistled and Levi poured the hot water into his spotless mug, then took a teabag from a small box beside the blender. He didn't bother to look at the flavor before tearing open the paper and dipping it into the cup.

"You're a fast one, aren't you?"

"Is that meant to insult me?"

Before Levi could bite back with another quip, Erwin muttered to give him a quick moment and set the phone down. He heard a muffled conversation as he stirred his tea and squeezed the excess water from the bag with a spoon. He wedged the phone between his chin and shoulder so he could retrieve the cream from the refrigerator, and with a quick splash he took a deep sip of the heavenly drink. Chamomile. The tension seeped out of his shoulders through a sigh as Levi placed his shoes in the corner and crossed into the living room. He set the mug on the side table and relaxed into the sofa, and by that time Erwin had returned.

"My apologies for that. Analyzation business."

"Of course." Levi took a noisy sip and wiped his mouth on the side of his hand.

"So, you're a teacher?"

Levi took a moment to respond, considering if he should try to pull off a lie at this point. No, he couldn't justify it. It wasn't like he was a sanitary worker. "Yes, I'm a teacher. Your point?"

"Where do you teach, NYU?"

Levi squinted, teeth clenching together and the filed ends of his nails digging into the arm of the couch. "Are you stalking me?"

"I'm sure you would catch me before I tried," Erwin mused. "No, of course not. Simply making predictions based on what I already know. Being a business analyst doesn't hurt deduction skills."

"Yeah, okay."

"What do you teach?"

"Law. Are you going to get to the reason why I fucking called you in the first place, or are we just going to play 20 Questions until the sun goes down?"

"You were the one who originally got us off-track."

Levi opened his mouth to argue, but as events ran through his head he realized that the dick was right. Dammit. He burned his lips on the next sip of tea. "I'm putting it back on track. Why are you inviting me out to this stupid concert?"

Erwin clicked his tongue a few times, and Levi could see him drumming his fingers on his desk and thinking through his words several times over to make sure he didn't end up choosing the wrong ones on accident. "Have you considered that I could be asking you on a date, Levi?"

Mid-sip, he spat his tea back into the mug and slammed it onto the coffee table. "A date?"

"You're a fast one, aren't you?" That chuckle was back again and god if Levi wasn't about to punch this bastard in the face. "Will I be seeing you there?"

He put on a look of disdain, even though Erwin couldn't see it. To his stupendous luck, the rain had stopped, most likely a few seconds after he'd walked in the door. The cuffs of his pants had dried off, but still he considered a hot shower after he got off the phone call. Maybe he would order takeout a bit later; he didn't feel like cooking.

"Fine."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah _anal_ yzation business is definitely what's on your mind isn't it Erwin
> 
> Thanks for kudos and comments!


	5. Chapter 5

Erwin didn't come to see him play the next weekend. Levi could hardly find it in him to be disappointed, but it didn't stop his anticipation for an absent applause. At least the weather had cleared up by that time, though the leaves still clumped together and rolled about like tumbleweeds. If Levi cared, he would've called up the Department of Recreation and asked whoever answered if anyone had heard of a handy tool called a rake.

Levi finished up his set quicker than he normally would, though he wouldn't admit that he was playing any different from every other Saturday evening. Within the next hour, he was dressed in something more appropriate for a concert – at least, what he thought was more appropriate, seeing that he didn't go to concerts very often, let alone in Brooklyn – and riding the subway in pursuit of the address scrawled onto the worn letter in his hands.

There was no line outside the building when he arrived. Levi checked the piece of paper again, and yes, this was the right place and time – and promptly swore.

"Asshole trying to blow me off?" Levi snarled to himself, taking out his phone. Well, all right. It was still 7:50. But if the show was at 8, where were all the audience members?

Not a minute later, Levi spotted Erwin hurrying across the street with his hands in his pockets. He was wearing a bowler hat this time. Erwin waved to him and tugged the fold of his scarf down.

"Beat me to the worm, haven't you?"

"Where is everyone?" Levi demanded, voice clipped.

Erwin raised an eyebrow at him and Levi started tapping the heel of his boot against the pavement. In a moment, the realization dawned upon him and his line-smile returned to his face. "Oh, about that. The show isn't until 10, but I thought we could have some dinner beforehand. Unless you've already eaten…?"

As if in reply, Levi's stomach growled. "Whatever."

He nodded, and held out a gloved hand for Levi to take. "I know a good few places we could go to. Feel like Indian food?"

Levi glared at the hand as if his eyes would make the fingers curl back and snap themselves in half. He took it anyway. "I feel like a fucking twink."

The line widened. Erwin turned down the block with a confident stride and Levi in tow. "I'm afraid to say that there aren't any gay clubs around here."

"What a shame."

 

~

 

The evening that followed wasn't extraordinary. A quiet dinner at a hole in the wall that served adequate food; a few intimate brushes of Erwin's leg against Levi's that weren't lusted after but not entirely unwelcome, either; a chilly walk back to the venue and a fine two hours spent listening to the decent orchestra of which Levi didn't bother to learn the name. In the back of his mind, he considered the idea of being a more enjoyable date that wasn't so firm on not having a good time, but the line-smile never left Erwin's face despite his every quip and retort, so he supposed however he acted Erwin would be just dandy. Levi wouldn't go out of his way to have the same experience, but Erwin's presence served to make it more bearable than if he were alone.

 

(Like hell he would admit it, though.)

 

Temperatures had dropped below freezing by the time Erwin and Levi made their way back outside. Levi shoved his hands underneath his armpits and pursed his lips tight against the gusting wind. Erwin glanced down at him and chuckled.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing. Merely laughing, Levi."

"I don't see anything funny."

"You wouldn't."

Levi didn't protest the arm that wrapped around his back and held him close to Erwin's side as they walked together, as short as it made him feel – how fucking tall was this guy, six-foot-two? – but he did protest where Erwin took him next. Erwin let go of him for a moment to take out his keys and unlock a sleek Cadillac parked by the curb. Levi frowned and spoke up, voice sharp against the wind.

"I'm not going home with you."

As Erwin opened the passenger door, he paused and glanced up at Levi. "I wasn't suggesting for you to. I will offer you a ride back to your home, however."

"I can get myself home, thanks." A wind swept his hair to the side and sliced at his scalp, making his teeth chatter without permission.

"Don't be foolish. I'd be a bad date if I made you go home on your own."

"You aren't. I'm making you let me go home on my own."

Erwin aimed a stoic look at him, one that reminded Levi too much of the look his father would give him when he was younger and complained about putting on the monkey suit his grandmother had lain out for him on the bed.

"Take the ride, Levi."

He hissed through his teeth. Another wind blew and sent them chattering again. He climbed into the car and let Erwin close the door behind him.

 

When Erwin pulled up in front of Levi's house, the clock read almost one o'clock in the morning. It was times like these that Levi was grateful for his work schedule, but still he aimed a sideways glance at Erwin that expressed his discontent with coming home so late.

"The train would have taken you longer," Erwin replied to the complaint that was never voiced. He put the car to idle, and a quiet radio head's voice muttered something about a police chase down 2nd Avenue. Levi buttoned up his coat and adjusted the way the collar sat around his neck. They stared out the windshield at the boulevard a few blocks down, still busy with people walking home and taxis driving, looking to pick some passengers up for a quick twenty dollars. Only a few windows still glowed yellow among the darkened bricks of the townhouses, just a few windows of teenagers who talked to their friends late at night with a shirt over the clock, or of mothers cradling the infants that had woken them up for the second time already. All others slept: some alone, some together, some draped over a chair and some with heads tilted to the ceiling and a book sliding out from their limp fingers.

Levi yawned. Erwin was staring at him again. Only the LED display of the dashboard cast a red and blue glow across his cheeks, but still a focus of light twinkled in his eyes. The man across from him smiled.

"Are you planning to spend the night in my car?"

Levi rolled his eyes and checked his pockets for his keys and wallet. "Don't project your fantasies onto me. It's disgusting."

"I had a wonderful evening," Erwin stated, ignoring Levi's remarks. "Thank you for humoring my request."

"It wasn't–" He stopped himself, but still he turned to stare back at Erwin. His lips curled under his teeth, hiding the pinkness from the heat that wafted from the vents. "It's fine."

"Was it?" He was teasing him again. Levi furrowed his brow and squinted at him. "Oh, that look again. If I'm such unpleasant company, do tell me."

"Do you derive all your pleasure from driving people into a corner until they feed your overinflated ego with more shit than that in a cesspool?"

"Absolutely. I grow aroused from it."

It took a moment for Levi to process that that, in fact, was a joke coming from Erwin's mouth. He snorted in the most unattractive way a single man could manage, and he covered his mouth with his loose fist as he tried to suppress the oncoming laughter.

"You're repulsive."

"You brought up cesspools." At this point, Erwin was laughing, too: splayed fingers pressing into his temples and palm covering his eyes while another grin split the straight line.

After a few moments solid of silent laughter, Levi gained a hold on himself and forced his deadpan to return to his face. He exhaled through his nose, pushing his fingertips together. Quietude took over once more, but their gazes still attracted each other like opposite poles on a magnet.

 

Levi was never a fan of kissing scenes in romantic movies, but that didn't stop him from leaning over the emergency brake and taking Erwin's lips with his own. Apparently, through all his little notes and schemes, Erwin hadn't been expecting such forwardness, at least not this evening; he froze for a moment before letting his fingers cup Levi's jaw, barely touching the skin but doing just enough to bring him closer. Out of habit, Levi nipped on Erwin's bottom lip as he stood on his knees and tried his best to avoid knocking his head into the ceiling of the car.

He didn't move into Erwin's lap. By the second time he breathed out, Levi retreated with a slight flush on his face. He fumbled for the handle and muttered a quiet, "Good night," before slamming the car door behind him and hurrying up the steps to his home. He looked back once to see Erwin still with his arm looped around the back of the passenger's seat, still with a hint of lust in his eyes as he stared at Levi at the top of the stairs. Levi didn't invite him inside, and didn't call him when he finally drove away from the curb.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot twist: Erwin later takes Levi to a Fall Out Boy concert and they fuck to _Miss Missing You_
> 
> Or maybe that's just the future that is yet to come *winkwonk*
> 
> Thank y'all again for all the comments, bookmarks, and kudos!


	6. Chapter 6

Erwin called the next morning. Levi was just in the middle of scrubbing the last wads of foam from his hair when his phone buzzed on the edge of the bathroom sink. He didn't bother to answer until he was wrapped in a warm towel from the dryer and Erwin had rung for a third time in a row. Even then, he let it vibrate six times before picking up.

"What?"

"Are you busy right about now?"

Levi sighed. "I just got out of the shower. What do you want?"

"Would you like to go out for coffee?"

He let the question sit in the air as he slipped on a pair of dress slacks and clasped a pair of dark suspenders to the waistband. The weather report on the TV displayed a few numbers and symbols that didn't really matter to Levi but it was good knowing it wasn't going to be freezing again today nonetheless.

"I don't drink coffee."

"Oh, come now, I'm sure you're not stupid enough to ignore the figurative meaning behind the colloquial phrase, Levi."

"Did you learn those words from being a business analyst, too?"

A windy sound blew through the speakers on Erwin's end of the call, but before Levi could assume it was a sigh, Erwin said, "I'm already outside a place on Morton Street. It's about a half mile from your house."

Oh, the bastard. He made a groan of disgust. "Not planning on picking me up?"

"I can, if it'll get you to come have coffee with me."

Levi tugged on a dress shirt and shoved the ends into the waist of his pants, once buttoned. He pulled the suspenders over his shoulders, turned off the TV and poured the spare water out of the kettle. The dishes were all done for the day.

"I'm bringing my lesson plans with me."

"By all means."

They went out for coffee.

 

Erwin was already standing at the base of the stairs when Levi closed the door behind him, wrapped tight in his cheap jacket and wool scarf. He had his bag looped over one shoulder with a hand clinging to the strap as if it would snap in two if he dared let go. Erwin was wearing the most horrendously unfashionable ski hat Levi had ever had the unfortunate experience of seeing.

"What the fuck are you wearing?" Levi asked, once meeting Erwin on the sidewalk.

He chuckled, tugging at the dangling strings of yarn. "What, this? My mother knit it for me."

"It looks like she modeled it off of her own shit in the toilet, for fuck's sake." He tried to grab onto Erwin's shoulder for leverage so he could snatch the nasty thing off his head, but because Erwin was half-giant, being nearly a foot taller than Levi, he failed to even touch the white tuft at the top of it.

"What a way to describe a hat."

"It's hideous. Take it off."

"I never knew you were a member of New York's Finest, Levi."

"What do you–" He paused as the joke made the gears turn. A frown made his lips tighten. "You have a terrible sense of humor." He turned on his heels and started walking off, leaving Erwin to catch up to him. The next thing he knew, Erwin's hand was sneaking around his waist and making itself a cozy home there.

"Get your hand off my ass."

"My hand isn't on your ass. Unless, of course, I'm underestimating your height and your waist is higher up than expected."

"Fuck you."

"Whenever you are ready."

Levi's lips clamped shut at that. He crossed his arms to his chest and let silence prevail as they crossed the boulevard and turned down a corner. Everyone was at church, save for a few children playing in the empty street with their tricycles and jump ropes, even though the chilly air still bit at the skin and left a red flush. He longed for the cold weather, however noisier it made the city at night when half of its people were out and about at hours as late as the next day's dawn. Even in his college years, Levi deemed such behavior frivolous.

 

(Though, he spent more time on even more frivolous behavior than he would confess.)

 

The café had a fuckton of tea. Perplexed, Levi stared at the list of flavors on the menu when he and Erwin took a seat. Apple cinnamon with a lemon slice, green tea with fresh mint leaves, something with saffron: it was all very much and if Levi was going to find the most appetizing drink off the list he would be there all day. A waiter came around and Levi ordered a pot of red vanilla bean tea. By the time Erwin ordered, his attention was already on the thick packet he'd placed in front of him. He held a pen in one hand and his chin in another, reading over the presentation slides and making notes.

Levi glanced across the table to find Erwin reading a newspaper. At least he wasn't staring at him, Levi supposed, as he returned his gaze to the lesson plan. A light tune that sounded Italian played overhead; some string quartet singing from the crackling speakers.

He'd only gotten to his fifth page by the time his tea arrived with a small scone or two on the side, a tub of clotted cream, and jam. A tight rubber band held the lid on the teapot as Levi poured it into the delicate cup before him, but out of habit he kept one finger on the top anyway. He sipped, and let out a sigh of relaxation as the sweetness of the tea warmed his sinuses and cured his dry lips.

"Good?"

Levi looked over to see Erwin biting into a buttered croissant, a mug of coffee in his other hand. He nodded, closing his eyes. "Not terrible."

Erwin shot him another line-smile. "I'm glad. May I taste some of your cream?"

At that, Levi could barely restrain himself from slamming the teacup down, and struggled to swallow the scalding tea in his mouth before replying. "Excuse me?"

He pointed to the tub of cream next to the scones, but the little smirk that played on his lips told more than Levi thought he meant. "Your cream. May I have some?"

Levi passed the cream over with a loud clack against the wooden table and returned to his work. Erwin dipped a finger into it and sucked it clean: to Levi's horror, he went back for more with the same finger.

"Double-dipping?" he remarked in disdain. "You're mixing your own saliva into the fucking cream. You expect me to eat it now that you've slobbered all over it?"

He received an inquisitive look in response, but goddamn it, Erwin was just shitting through his teeth, wasn't he? "We've kissed rather passionately already, but you're repulsed by double-dipping? You are a walking paradox, Levi."

Levi managed to keep the burning of the tea in his throat from coloring his cheeks, but still his heart shuddered in his chest. He blamed his visible reaction on the wind that came in through the door as a few other customers walked into the café.

"Shut up and eat your shitty croissant."

"It's actually quite good. Would you like some?" Erwin held out the end of the croissant that he'd already bitten. Levi recoiled with the same pursed lips as he would show to a flattened pigeon corpse.

Erwin chuckled and tore off the unbitten end of the pastry, and handed that to Levi, instead. "Quite a germaphobe, aren't you?"

Levi pressed the tip of his pen into the paper out of instinct and swore under his breath when it left a thick blot over the words he'd just written. "I'm not a germaphobe. You're just a pig."

"A pig, am I?" Levi jumped when he suddenly felt something touch his leg, but the moment he brought his attention back to Erwin the amused look on his face gave it all away. "You kissed a pig."

He shifted his seat back so Erwin couldn't do it again. "Don't give me that."

"And you chew with your mouth open." Erwin only stretched his legs out further, purposefully rubbing against Levi like a cat. There was only so much Levi could scoot back before he hit the divider that separated their table from the next one over. Damn it.

"I'm not a child," Levi snapped.

"I would hope not," Erwin replied, running the tip of his finger around the rim of his coffee mug. "I could get arrested for the kinds of thoughts I've had about you since last night."

He bristled. "You're a fucking pervert."

Erwin finished his croissant while the portion he'd given to Levi still lay on the saucer under the teapot. "Am I?"

"You're copping a feel on me in public."

"I'm touching your leg."

"You're playing footsie like we're a pair of 13-year-olds on the first date," he spat.

"Do you want me to stop?" Erwin asked, his eyebrows coming together by a fraction of an inch out of concern.

To this, Levi never gave a definite response. He merely turned his attention back to his lesson plan, which was absorbing the splotch of ink well and spreading it to other pages, too. Wonderful. "Piece of shit pen," he muttered to himself, flipping through the packet and glancing over the contents before taking another sip of his tea. It had cooled off to a bearable temperature, so for that Levi supposed he could thank Erwin's distractions.

Or not, he thought, as Erwin's hand reached across the table and rested over the hand that held his pen. His index finger rubbed over his knuckles and explored the wrinkles in the skin, as Erwin himself continued to flip through the newspaper with his other hand. Levi sighed. Why did he bother bringing his work in the first place?

"I'm trying to write," he protested, though the lack of force behind it sang a different story.

"So you are." He didn't remove his hand.

Levi put down his pen. "What do you want from me?"

Erwin put down his paper and took a deep sip of his coffee. Levi's heart gave another shudder when his tongue rolled over his lips, licking up the excess.

"Nothing that you aren't willing to give, Levi."

He rolled his eyes and poured himself another cup of tea. The cover on the pot kept it warm, so steam rolled off the surface as Levi took the small jug of cream on the table and poured in a spoonful.

"How conveniently vague."

His fingers flipped through the rest of the packet before him, and his pen lay untouched as Levi continued to sip his tea from time to time. At some point, Erwin had taken his scones and jam, since the plate where they once lay was bare save for a few crumbs the next time Levi looked over at it. The café started to clear out as the morning receded and midday took over, but Levi didn't bother to take his phone with him so the exact time was a mystery to him. From how slow Erwin was taking things, and how his hand never really left his and their calves were warm against each other under the table.

 

When the check came around, Erwin placed his card on it before Levi could say a word.

"You paid for dinner that first night," he said in response to the accusatory look Levi gave him.

"You insisted on paying for dinner and the show tickets last night," he argued.

"Then you may pay next time." Erwin rubbed his thumb over Levi's wrist. "Are you doing anything after this?"

Levi gave a shake of his head before he realized he wanted to lie in the first place.

Erwin chuckled, turning Levi's hand over so his palm faced the ceiling and running two fingers along the deep creases in the skin. "Would you be opposed to inviting me over to your house?"

A shiver strolled down his back. "What a backhanded question."

Erwin shrugged and the waiter brought back his credit card wrapped with a copy of the check. He pocketed it and let go of Levi's hand so he could start getting his coat back on, along with – to Levi's dismay – his ski hat. "I figured it was worth a try."

"What are you expecting from me?"

"Nothing at all," Erwin said simply, standing from the table and putting the folded newspaper in his back pocket. He turned around on Levi and held his coat for him, but the second he zipped it up on his own, he leaned in and whispered just under Levi's ear, "It's all up to you to decide."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear half of Erwin and Levi's dialogue can just be replaced with various reiterations of _"Please just fuck me already oh god."_
> 
> Maybe that will happen soon... who knows? 8)


	7. Chapter 7

"Take your shoes off," was the first thing Levi told Erwin to do upon letting him into his house. Erwin shot him an odd look, but bent down and slipped off his boots before he aroused any further contempt. Levi left him in the front room, heading into the kitchen and checking his phone, left on the counter. Was it already past noon? Jesus Christ, this guy took a while to drink his coffee.

Erwin followed him a moment later, bereft of his terrible hat and his coat, to Levi's relief. Levi opened the refrigerator and checked around, noting how there wasn't much he could cook for lunch as it stood. He still had to get groceries for the week. Maybe since Erwin was so insistent on coming to his house he could help with the errands Levi had yet to run, for all the time he took up.

"Very clean," Erwin commented, looking like a giant in the cramped kitchen. He went to the window over the sink and glanced at the backyard. "A vegetable garden?"

"Nothing must get past you, Sherlock," Levi retorted, crossing his arms over his chest. "Just root vegetables this time of year. It's a guarantee that I'm not going to be shitting out whatever chemicals they spray on crops to kill insects."

Erwin chuckled. He sidled over to Levi and placed a hand on either side of his hips, cornering him against the counter. The floor didn't creak when he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Levi's cheek.

"Priss," he teased.

"Your breath smells like coffee. Go brush your teeth before you start sticking your tongue down my throat." Levi turned his head to the side and waved Erwin away with a flat palm.

To his luck, Erwin did retreat, but not enough to make him stop fidgeting against the cold marble. Levi would have to turn up the heat once he made it to the thermostat.

"I don't keep a toothbrush here, yet."

"I have spares."

"Could you settle for just some mouthwash, your Majesty?"

Levi rolled his eyes and turned around to face the cabinets on the wall before Erwin could pin him again. He didn't have to reach for the handle – he'd modified the height of the cabinets when he moved in to suit his needs – but for a travel-sized bottle of mouthwash on the highest shelf, stretching was necessary.

"Do you need help?" Erwin asked, his hands already making Levi's hips tingle.

"Fuck off." Levi managed to brush the tips of his fingers against the container, knocking it back on the shelf by a few centimeters. "Son of a _bitch–_ "

"Levi–"

"I said fuck off, Erwin," Levi repeated, aiming a glare over his shoulder that made even Erwin's blood freeze for a second. He bounced on the balls of his feet and grabbed it, and slammed the cabinet door louder than he had meant. He turned back around and put it in the other man's hand. "There. Wash."

As Erwin shook his head, an unnoticeable gesture, and cracked open the sealed bottle, Levi stepped away and took a pad of paper off the refrigerator. He took up a pencil, too, and listening to the quiet sound of Erwin swishing the fluid around in his mouth he scribbled down a to-do list for the day. Somewhere underground, a train rumbled by and made the house vibrate for a few moments. Levi stuck the list and pad of paper back onto the refrigerator with a magnet and leaned against the counter. The black marble made his dress shirt seem like paper, his skin washed out. He always thought it was too dark for a kitchen, especially one that only had one window. Someday, when he wasn't preoccupied with work or flirtatious assholes, he'd get someone in to install something lighter.

Erwin spat into the sink and ran some hot water without Levi ordering him. He went over to him and breathed in his face, a smirk on his lips.

"Satisfactory?" he asked.

"Adequate," Levi replied. Erwin didn't have to lean in this time, for Levi's hand was already around the back of his neck, picking at minuscule pills on his collar. The light from the window hit his eyelids that flickered shut, his eyelashes casting faded shadows on his cheeks. A slight chill nipped on Erwin's fingers when they cupped Levi's jaw.

His lips, however, were warm. Fresh mint mingled with sweet vanilla as hands tightened and slid over taut fabric. Levi arched over the counter as Erwin pushed into him, and he hissed at how his back cracked in protest. A rumble of laughter made Erwin's chest vibrate against Levi's body. He broke off the kiss to squint at him, an accusatory grimace forming on his face.

"The fuck are you laughing at, cockwad?"

Erwin ducked to kiss at Levi's neck, his teeth scraping against the skin just enough to leave a red mark. "Your body sounds twice as old as it looks."

Levi snarled, but his fingers still threaded into Erwin's cleanly combed hair and tugged on the blond locks. "You're shit at complimenting people."

"Would you rather I call you sexy?"

He inhaled sharply, squirming against the counter. Erwin chuckled again and sucked on his neck hard enough to bring out another gasp, quickly muffled by the back of Levi's hand.

"My students are going to see, you fuck–!"

"It's wintertime. Wear a scarf."

Erwin nipped at the lobe of his ear, and Levi scratched his round nails into his back as much as he could manage. Their hips were warm against each other, rubbing and moving enough for Levi to reconsider his previous thought about turning up the thermostat. He shifted to the right, just enough so he could balance on one foot as he hooked a knee against Erwin's crotch.

The quiet groan that followed – ethereal. Levi ground his knee into him again and they kissed again for just a second. Erwin tugged Levi’s head back by his hair and forced his tongue past his lips. For a moment, Levi was sure that he was about to legitimately shove his tongue down his throat, but the sensation of him flicking against the roof of his mouth sent his lungs pumping and heart shuddering in response.

His knee was going to suffer rug burn if Erwin kept rocking on it that way. Levi smacked the side of his hip and muttered against his lips, "You're going to burn a hole through them."

Erwin smirked and ground against him harder. He kissed the side of his head and gently worked his hands on the buttons of Levi's shirt, and Levi hoped he wouldn't pop any of them. It stung when Erwin snapped the straps of his suspenders, which hit his nipples through his loosened shirt, but all Levi could manage to do was whisper out a moan that was an octave much too high for his comfort.

And oh, did Erwin notice, the damn bastard. He snapped the suspenders again, abrading the skin and fuck, _fuck_ that sound that went straight to his crotch. Levi breathed harder, a hand clutching the back of Erwin's neck and tugging him in for another sloppy kiss that would have disgusted Levi otherwise. The mint had disappeared, long since been replaced by the simple scent of saliva and warm breath that surrounded Levi with a blanket of bliss.

Levi shivered, but even though his shirt was falling off his shoulders Erwin still toyed with his suspenders. He nosed his way behind Levi's ear and another shudder stumbled down his back.

"Prefer it a bit rougher?" he whispered, snapping the elastic against his bare chest.

"Why don't you stop asking questions and just find out for _yourself_ , asshole," Levi muttered back, and he took the split second for which Erwin hesitated to kiss at his jaw and reach up for his earlobe. His cologne intoxicated him, some fancy-ass scent from ULTA that he probably spent two hundred dollars on to impress someone else at some point, but it made his head tingle in delight. Erwin's chuckles transferred into his chest as he righted himself and pressed up against him. He looped both arms around Erwin's neck; Erwin's hands gripped at his hips and moved to cup his ass through his pressed slacks.

"Do you have a bedroom we could, perhaps, move to?" Erwin asked, voice breathy, a half-step lower than it normally was.

"No, I sleep sitting on the shitter," Levi snarked, biting on his neck hard enough to leave a mark that matched the one Erwin had left on him. "Yes, I have a fucking bedroom. Multiple. Just get us to one."

"Assuming I know where one is."

Levi retreated from Erwin's neck, but his fingers still clung to his rumpled dress shirt. He glared at him as if he'd asked for a blade of grass from the garden and Erwin was trying to tell him that grass only grew on the side of buildings. "Second floor. Pick a room that has a bed." His grip tightened, and he ground against Erwin's crotch. "And _fuck_ me on it."

An easy smirk rose to Erwin's lips as he took a deep breath. The flush that tinged his cheeks was the color of the carnations Levi grew in the springtime. Levi barely noticed when Erwin picked him up, but the second he realized, he wrapped his legs tight around Erwin's hips and rocked against him as much as he could with Erwin holding him so tight.

"Dirty boy," Erwin teased, his fingers digging into the curve of his ass on purpose, the fucker. "I'm going to drop you if you keep squirming like that."

"What, got a daddy fetish all of a sudden?" Erwin's breath hitched for a split second while Levi guided him down the hallway back to the front room, where a staircase led up to the higher floors. The most devilish smirk a man of his height could manage curled onto his lips. His long fingers danced around Erwin's neck and tugged at his collar.

"You're a filthy man." He smoothed the cowlicks he had caused when he had gripped onto the pristine locks of blonde hair. His suspenders had slipped off his shoulders and now dangled, still clasped to the waistband of his pants. Erwin hadn't even made it to the base of the stairs before Levi was tugging himself up to his ear, licking his lips, and whispering,

"Daddy."

Instead of going up the stairs as expected, Levi found himself pinned against the wall with Erwin surrounding him, tearing his shirt out of his pants and chucking it aside. Levi grimaced at the careless wrinkles Erwin twisted into the fabric. He had no time to gripe, though, for Erwin kissed the thoughts out of his mind and made him melt against the wall. His blunt fingernails made red streaks through Erwin's shirt, and speaking of Erwin's shirt it would’ve been a lot more useful if it was on the floor. Levi stretched the threads of his tie trying to get it off.

Erwin nipped at his neck. "Don't tear it."

Levi slid the tie off and hung it on an empty coat rack. "Could ask the same thing about my asshole hopefully sometime this year." His fingers fumbled with the buttons as Erwin rocked against the visible erection in his pants and groped his hips hard enough that Levi feared there would be bruises the next morning.

"Did you get these as a business analyst, too?" Levi remarked with his palms smoothing over Erwin's toned stomach. A squirm in the pit of his stomach made him feel inferior for just a moment, but as he locked gazes with Erwin the lust in his eyes squashed the feeling under its heavy boot; he read all the words he wanted to hear out loud off his irises. Levi curled his toes, lost in a fantasy of a messy dream by which he'd once been disgusted.

 

He did not remember when Erwin finally brought him upstairs, but they were on a bed now and from the color of the ceiling they were in the first guest room? The sheets smelled dusty and Levi would've made a mental note to get to cleaning them as soon as he and Erwin were done dirtying them further, but the sight of Erwin tearing off his own thin shirt and tossing it aside was a much more palatable thing to consider.

Erwin leaned down and kissed the center of Levi's chest, and Levi raised an arm to cover his face, burning up like he was a child with a fever staying at home under the comforter. He panted just as hard, eyes rolling into the back of his head, when a firm heel of the palm rubbed his cock through his dress pants. But before Erwin could undo the zipper, slip the button back through the slit, run his tongue up and down Levi's length and make him feel like a god – Levi waved his other arm about in protest.

"Erwin," he whispered. Either he didn't seem to hear him or was choosing to ignore him. "Erwin!"

The hands froze, and the oxytocin drumming on his veins compelled him to buck up despite himself. Erwin leaned up and pressed a dry kiss against his lips: it burned, and Levi shuddered.

"Is that my name?" His weight on top of Levi was enough to make his legs go numb. Levi gripped Erwin's waist and massaged the small of his back with very tips of his fingers.

"What else would your name be, douchebag?"

Erwin coughed into the pillow upon which Levi rested his head. "Think about it."

"I'm not going to even fucking let it cross my mind if you don't slap a condom on your cock."

"Then, please," Erwin muttered, rising from Levi just enough to give him space to wriggle out from under him, "go get one."

Levi hissed at the chilly air in the absence of Erwin on top of him, but he still padded down the hall and into the bathroom. As he reached up for the medicine chest the mirror reflected the red marks all over his body. He absently wondered how many more were yet to come. He grabbed a couple of foil squares from the paper box, the quarter-empty bottle of lubricant, and, just to be safe, a bottle of hand sanitizer. Who knew where that man's hands had been? Levi already felt dirty knowing that he'd let Erwin touch him so much without forcing the sanitizer on him. Then again, he felt dirty for a shitload of other reasons, too.

 

Erwin had taken Levi's place while he was gone. He placed the retrieved materials on the bedside table and fell back into Erwin's outstretched arms, forgetting his thoughts on cleanliness in favor of the warmth his presence gave him.

"Have you thought about it?" Erwin asked, raising an eyebrow.

Levi squinted at him. "About what? Taking a shit?"

This time, it was Erwin's turn to scoff, though with an amused smirk on his face.

"You're repulsive. Saying things like that when both you and I know of all the lovely things I want to do to you?"

"Why don't you just shut your trap and do them, then?" At that, Erwin licked his lips. His calloused hands – calloused from what, Levi wondered – cupped his ass and tugged him forward, so their crotches were touching, barred only by the taut fabric of their slacks. Straddling Erwin’s hips, Levi leaned his elbows against the headboard, and before Erwin could say another thing he rocked against him, hard. Pleasure spread through him like the color from a teabag would spread into a cup of hot water, and the feeling was just as vibrant. A moan spilled off his lips, and its sound dragged another one from Erwin's throat.

Erwin kissed his chest again while his fingers worked to rid himself of his belt. Levi flinched when he heard the loud snap of leather on leather, and Erwin must have felt how his cock twitched in response to the sound, because the asshole looked absolutely tickled pink. He growled low in his throat, and tugged back for a moment so he could kindly tell Erwin to cut that the fuck out. Little was he prepared when the belt struck him across the ass, for the gasp of delight that followed was never something he wanted to hear from his own mouth again.

"You bastard!" Levi swore, twisting around to snatch the belt out of Erwin's hands. "I _might_ want to be able to walk tomorrow. Save it for next time."

"Next time?" Fuck that shit-eating grin. "Certainly."

Levi threw the belt aside and it fell to the floor buckle-first with a metallic clatter. Erwin was already unclipping his suspenders, undoing his zipper and groping at his erection through the thin fabric of his boxers, so all Levi could do next was lean forward and breathe against his shoulder. Erwin thumbed the head and Levi could feel his own fluids soiling his underwear – a gross feeling at which he made a face – but still he bucked against the warm hand and panted into the air. The bed frame creaked under their combined weight. The repetitive sound grated at Levi's nerves, yet there was nothing he could do to resist this piece of shit. He bit his bottom lip, and gripped onto the back of Erwin's neck.

At the feeling of bare skin on his cock, however, Levi froze and knocked Erwin's hand away. He edged back, and after grabbing the hand sanitizer off the bedside table he pressed it into Erwin's palm.

"Is this going to become a regular occurrence, Levi?" Erwin asked, but he obediently squirted the cleaning alcohol into his hands. "Not much of a turn-on, I admit."

Levi took the bottle and poured himself a few drops, as well.  "If I have to spend one more moment thinking about how many germs your hands are spreading onto my body, I'll vomit."

He tossed the bottle back onto the table. His fingers curled into Erwin's hair again and the heavenly pleasure resumed with Erwin's hand around his cock. The windows were starting to fog up from how hard Levi panted. Cool air chilled his sweating skin. He considered tearing up the tucked blankets and throwing them over their bodies, but Erwin grazed his thumb over the slit of his cock and the bolt of electric-like ecstasy shook all thoughts out of his mind.

"The walls aren't that thin, are they?" Erwin muttered, breathing into his neck.

"What are you blabbering about now?"

"You're not very vocal when it comes to sex."

Levi scoffed. "Give me something to be vocal about and then we'll talk. You're doing nothing but dragging out foreplay. Do you want me to get bored and leave?"

Erwin grabbed one of the condoms from the table and quickly unwrapped it over Levi's erection, clicking his tongue and shaking his head back and forth.

"You're a tough nut to crack, Levi," he commented. He gestured for Levi to stand on the bed, a foot on either side of his own body so his cock touched Erwin's lips. "If I didn't know any better I would say you weren't enjoying it."

Levi let out a tight hiss as Erwin surrounded him, tongue working over the head of his cock before he took it into his mouth. His nerves tingled in utter delight with the stimulation, and before Levi could even find it in himself to control his vocal chords he moaned aloud. He felt Erwin chuckle, and thrusted into his mouth to shut him up.

His sweating fingers made it difficult for him to grip onto the headboard, but even as he slipped Levi pressed his forehead against the wood for some leverage to keep thrusting into Erwin's mouth. His jaw fell open, his panting grew hoarser while Erwin took him down further with an enthusiasm Levi didn't know he had in him. Then again, at this point Levi really knew nothing but how to snap his hips into Erwin and scratch his nails down the opposite wall, how to make the other man's head hit against the wood behind him and choke around his length. Every muscle in his body clenched and burned. Levi's eyes squeezed shut and he dug his teeth into his bottom lip, but when the fluttering of his nerves predicted a climax he pulled at Erwin's hair and broke himself free. His legs fell under him, and once again he was sitting in Erwin's lap with knees straddling his chest.

He wiped the sweat from his brow onto the dusty sheets, chest heaving. Erwin raised an eyebrow, drying his lips of saliva with the edge of his thumb.

"Too much stimulation?" he asked.

"I want your cock up my ass," Levi replied.

Erwin snorted outright, combing his hair back with his clammy fingers and sitting up against the headboard. While they were pausing, he took the other condom and the bottle of lube from the table and set both next to him on the bed.

"Ask for things nicely and you might come upon your desired reward."

"You're talking to a fucking law teacher, Erwin."

Another snort. "Humor me."

Levi groaned, but he said nothing more. He leaned forward and tugged the smooth fabric of his pants halfway down his thighs with ease, what with Erwin and his stupid belt shenanigans beforehand. All the while, Erwin thumbed the space of skin just above his butt cheeks: it was an intimate gesture with which Levi wasn't familiar, but the simple feeling was enough to calm his nerves enough to keep his self-denial from blinding him of his objective. Erwin's boxers came off soon after, and with Erwin nudging for him to get off, Levi rolled onto his stomach so Erwin could ditch both articles of clothing to the floor.

A yawn made Levi's mouth stretch wide. He pulled his arms in front of him and straightened his legs behind him, cramping up from being so tense beforehand. He realized soon enough that lying on his stomach was not really comfortable when he had a dick in the way, but before he could adjust Erwin was climbing over him and pressing a palm between his shoulder blades.

"You never struck me as the submissive type," Erwin hummed, and the crinkling of the condom wrapper gave Levi a vivid image of what he was doing without him needing to look. "This position makes you seem almost adolescent."

"Can we not make this seem any more pedophilic than your little kink has already?" Levi retorted, voice strained and exasperated. "Just get on with it and put your dick up my shithole."

"Oh, so you do remember." The plastic click of Erwin opening the bottle of lubricant made Levi flinch. "The way you talk, you sound like a teenager I have to babysit."

"For Christ's sake, shut _up_."

"Is that how you ask for things, Levi?"

Levi nearly jumped out of his skin when Erwin pressed a cold finger against his hole, slick with lubricant. He buried his face into his folded arms and struggled to grip the sheets with his toes, but his feet merely slipped over the silk and hit Erwin's thighs.

"I'm not a virgin, you don't need to go slow, come on you piece of constipated shit," Levi hissed, shoulders going tense again.

Erwin hooked a finger inside of him, but didn't do anything more than just wiggle it back and forth. "If you plan on walking tomorrow, you must be properly prepared so this is as painless as possible." He had an awful tease to his voice that Levi wanted to strangle.

"Forget what I said, just fucking _fuck_ me before I reach a hand down and jerk myself off."

As he said this, Erwin's other hand came around and pinned Levi's crossed wrists to the bed: Levi tried to struggle, but of course Erwin chose that time to shove another finger up his ass and make his voice catch with an embarrassing squeak.

Levi growled. "You're an asshole." He tried not to squirm as Erwin thrusted those two fingers into him, and as payback he edged forward and bit the hand that kept him down.

"You're a slut." Everything in Levi's body tensed at once, the words falling flat on his back from the lips he'd turned red with his own cock. He panted and wriggled underneath Erwin's grip, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get enough friction on his erection to satisfy the boiling lust that set his head afire. Erwin was chuckling again.

"Shut the hell up."

"I don't think you want me to." He inserted a third finger.

"Yes, yes I fucking do."

"Say please."

" _No._ "

Erwin sighed, as did Levi of relief when finally he was done stretching him. Such relief was short-lived, however, for what came next was not the fate Levi desired. Erwin let go of his wrists, and Levi licked his lips at the sound of him coating his erection in lubricant, but those thick hands of his only squeezed the cheeks of his ass together, rather than spread them.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Levi snapped.

He patted his hip, such a condescending gesture that Levi scowled. "Enjoying myself." Before he could argue further, Erwin slid his cock between his cheeks; the cold latex made Levi shudder awfully, but the tease made him shiver even further. Erwin hovered over him and pressed a kiss to the nape of his neck while Levi himself struggled to keep it together. The more he squirmed, the more Erwin moaned and rubbed against him.

" _Erwin_ –"

"That's not my name." Levi let his forehead fall into his crossed forearms, brow crinkled in frustration.

"For the love of fuck, stop playing games–"

"If you want it, ask for it nicely."

He let out an elongated groan, but to his misfortune his arousal was beginning to outweigh his pride. Levi scraped his teeth over his upper lip, feeling vulnerable and bent out of shape with the position Erwin had him in. The longer he waited, the more pressure would build up in his chest from being pressed into the bed, and the more he would ache just to get off already. A clench of the jaw, an exasperated sigh.

" _Please._ "

"Please what?"

Levi coughed and his neck cracked from the force of it. "Please, _Daddy._ "

Erwin froze for a moment, and for that moment Levi feared that he was going to stop altogether. But, when Erwin retreated and he heard the familiar sound of the lube squirting out of the bottle again, he propped himself up on splayed knees and elbows. He glanced at Erwin from between his legs, and while wobbly on one arm he managed to reach an arm back and tug one of his cheeks to the side. He chose not to imagine what he looked like, but from the expression that rose on Erwin's face it must've been pretty good.

"Happy? Now hurry up."

 

Levi didn't have to ask twice.

 

His elbows slid forward and made his upper body fall into the sheets the second Erwin thrusted into him, but he had little time to right himself before Erwin was forcing him into the bed and working as much of his cock into him as he could in one shot. Levi gasped aloud, pleasure overtaking him in a haze with how Erwin gripped him, how Erwin filled him up and how Erwin was muttering some filthy things under his breath that made Levi's skin crawl in delight. He splayed his arms out in front of him and turned his head to the side so he wouldn't suffocate, but the more Erwin pushed in, the more he shifted toward the headboard.

Erwin barely took a second to let Levi adjust to his length before he snapped his hips back and thrusted into him again. A dull tingling made his entire body glow with warmth, which quickly picked up to an overwhelming sensation with Erwin's pace. Levi couldn't find it in him now to keep the moans from spilling from his lips and filling the room with sound, a melody to go with the rhythm of the bed creaking underneath him and Erwin. The sheets grew damp where he breathed, and every so often his hips would dip and the head of his cock would brush against the mattress and renew the pleasure all over again.

Hands trailed down his body, but never would they reach for his erection. Fingers would card through his hair, flick his nipples and slide in to fill the spaces between Levi’s fingers, but the only satisfying contact came from Erwin thrusting in and out with moans that turned his ears red. Levi swallowed the saliva that pooled in his mouth, but he couldn't keep his lips together for a second with Erwin rocking against him, fucking him like he was a cheap whore when his palms smoothing over his skin spoke such a different story. Levi's head was spinning. His shoulders dropped, and his pride flaked away with every time he moaned.

"Fuck, I'm," Levi stuttered past his choking breath. "Erwin, touch me." The stream of words came out jumbled and frantic, to which Erwin just responded with another thrust. "You fucker c'mon I'm close."

"What's the word, Levi?" As if it would make him any more willing to give him the response he wanted, Erwin flattened his palm and patted Levi's ass harder than he did his hip.

"Are you seriously going to–!" His voice melted into a whimper when Erwin's other hand wrapped warm around his cock, but he could only thrust into him as much as Erwin allowed. "Goddammit _please_ holy shit!"

Erwin hummed low in his throat, but the way his voice cracked at the tail end let Levi know that he wasn't in any position to be depriving him of climax.

"Good enough for now, I suppose."

Erwin struggled to keep the condom on Levi's erection as he pumped him, but just the fumbling touches were enough to send him over the edge. He arched his back and cried out into the mattress, shaking as bliss overtook him in shockwaves. His heart pounding in his ears and his own breathing tuned out all surrounding noises, but when the full feeling in his ass subsided and Erwin himself fell next to him he assumed Erwin came soon after.

While euphoria was great and all, though, Levi wasn't one to lie about with a soiled condom around his now flaccid dick. He rolled over and swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and made a disgusted face as he slipped off the latex, tied it, and disposed of it in a trash bin in the corner. He circled around the bed and picked up his dress shirt, but before he could make his exit Erwin called to him.

"Where are you going?" He sounded so authoritative when he spoke.

"The bathroom," Levi replied, tugging on the shirt but not buttoning it.

"What for?"

He stepped out of the bedroom and left the door open behind him. "To take a shit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Hon hon hon._
> 
> Happy Memorial Day for all you Americans out there! Eat lots of burgers and frankfurters and try not to set too many things on fire.
> 
> P.S.: Thanks for all the kudos and comments! They absolutely make my day when I see and read them ;u;


	8. Chapter 8

Levi was already out the door by the time his phone buzzed in his pocket the next Saturday, his bag crammed under his arm and his free hand messing with the collar of his coat so he looked at least somewhat more presentable than he usually did on a weekend. When stopped at a red light, Levi took his phone out and leered at the flirtatious message from – who else could it be? – Erwin.

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> Are you busy today?

 

If a text could have conveyed the rolling of Levi's eyes, it would have done more justice to the exact emotion in the words Levi texted back.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> yes, leave me alone

 

He crossed the street before the cars came to a full stop and flipped up his middle finger at the taxi who honked at him, and turned a corner to walk along the avenue. Winter was setting in, and the chill showed in how it turned the edges of Levi's cheeks red. It hadn't snowed yet, to his relief, but he was sure once the weather forecast predicted it, the city would move the piano out of the park and he'd be back to playing the shitty instrument in his basement, forever out of tune due to his own lack of motivation to call in a professional. He supposed he couldn't complain, since with the amount of money he made he could just as easily go out and buy a new one. Yet… this was a stupid train of thought. Levi looked around him for the chain café to which he'd been told to go, and ended up backtracking after realizing he'd thought his way right past the damn place.

The sweet smell of fresh pastries and coffee enticed Levi into buying a chocolate croissant before seating himself at a table by the window. When he checked his phone for the time, he found that Erwin had texted him back while he was lost in thought. He grimaced at the words on the screen.

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> With what?

 

His thumbs worked fast to create a response that erred on the side of vague, in hopes that his dodginess would be enough for him to get bored and stop pestering him.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> i'm meeting a student

 

A student who happened to be a few minutes late. What could Levi even expect from someone who never came to lectures any earlier than 20 minutes in? As he set his phone on the table and took a bite out of the warm croissant, a small part of him mumbled that he should've just pawned the student off on one of his peers who actually had half a mind to pay attention when he was speaking; not one who just relied on the presentations he would post online after each class.

Levi sighed. No matter. It wasn't like he had much else to do that day.

 

The student in question appeared a short moment later, looking very frazzled as he looked about the café. Levi raised his hand and beckoned him to come over, his croissant already finished. The younger man sat down with a breathy thud, and immediately sputtered out an apology he'd probably rehearsed on the way there.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Levi, my alarm didn't go off and my roommates hid my keys under the sink so I had to go looking for them, I really didn't mean to be–"

"It's fine, Jaeger," Levi replied, stirring his finger around the edge of his plate and scooping up the remaining crumbs. "Get your notes out and we'll work from there. Buy yourself a coffee, you look constipated."

The student's expressions twisted into embarrassment. He nodded his head and stammered, "Yes, Dr. Levi," and rose from the table just as quickly as he had seated himself. Levi's phone buzzed again, and despite his assumed demeanor he snatched it up and jammed his finger against the screen to show the message.

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> You make it seem as if you're having an affair, Levi. So soon? Or are you simply polyamorous?

 

Levi scowled. What, did he think just because they had sex he suddenly had ownership over him and what he did? For Christ's sake, what was with people these days thinking a few dates and a quick fuck meant they were suddenly bound to each other in some mutually exclusive relationship fuckall? No, no, you idiot, that wasn't even the issue here. He shook his head at the mere thought of seeing a student with romantic undertones in mind. Ew. No.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> fuck off, i'm tutoring him. are you done invading my personal life?

 

In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to leave off with a question; it would only encourage Erwin to pursue his attention further. But really, if Erwin had nothing better to do than interrupt Levi while he was working, then Levi was the one who would be laughing in the end. He pocketed his phone as his student came back with a large coffee in his hand. With his bulky backpack in the way, Jaeger struggled to get himself seated. His other arm twitched, upsetting the hot drink and spilling it onto Levi's hand. Levi himself hissed, snapping back in an instant and scrubbing at the skin with a spare napkin. The student looked as if he was about to keel over.

"Crap, I'm so–"

"Shut your trap and just open your books," Levi interrupted, voice curt. He reached for his bag and took out his own lesson plans, which by some magical means managed to get covered in the appropriate notes, despite Erwin's distractions. His phone went off, and the student must've heard it since he patted his pocket to make sure it wasn't his, but Levi ignored it. If it was that urgent, Erwin would call. "Let's start. What shit's flown over your head this time?"

 

The sun had risen enough for it not to get in Levi's eyes as he and the student ran through the material, with the former annotating the latter's notes with a neat scrawl while the latter looked on in mild amazement. Levi kept his eyes closed half the time but the side of his hand always found the edge of the page before the tip of his pen did. In the empty spaces, blue words and red circles and diagrams piled up around graphite scribbles of Jaeger's hand as he tried to take down everything Levi was saying. From time to time, when the pencil went slack and eyes started to droop, Levi flicked his fingernail against the student's knuckle and reprimanded him with a crude few words that made his back go straight as a pole. It amused Levi, to say the least, and whenever he smirked at how much Jaeger fidgeted under his seemingly apathetic glare he only fidgeted more. Students were amusing.

His phone was buzzing again. The student set his pencil down and reached to his pocket again before Levi cut him off.

"It's mine," he stated, voice cooling the air. It buzzed again, insistent and repetitive and he _swore to god he was going to cut off his dick_. "Take a break. I need to take care of this." The student visibly relaxed, and took a sip of his coffee that was still half-full but no longer warm. Levi clenched his phone within his curled fingers and stabbed the screen with his thumb.

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> Is it not my obligation?

>> Are you ignoring me now? How childish.

>> I was merely going to ask if you'd like to indulge in a sort of fantasy. Something along the lines of last weekend's encounter.

>> I am rather bored at the moment.

 

Levi sighed through his nose. Who was the one calling him a child, pestering him and begging for his attention? Some people really never grew up, did they. But Jaeger was sipping his lukewarm coffee and playing some game on his phone, so Levi supposed he could take a moment just to tell Erwin to shove off.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> jesus christ, what did you do before you met me? sit around with your hand down your pants constantly or something

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> I busied myself with a different half-witted man with the body of an adolescent, obviously.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> i will never have sex with you again if you keep calling me a teenager

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> Most men our age would take that as a compliment.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> if most men told you your dick was small, you'd still insist otherwise

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> I hardly heard you complaining when you were bent over touching yourself.

 

Oh, that bastard. Levi glanced up and saw the student cursing under his breath at the game he was playing. He still had some time. In the worst case scenario, he'd put the damn thing on do not disturb and throw it into his bag. Despite this resolution, though, his cheeks filled with color as he ground out a message in return.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> cut that out. are you some kind of sadistic exhibitionist?

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> Giving you a flat-out answer wouldn’t be fun, now, would it?

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> i'm not entertaining this notion. bye

 

He set his phone down with such force that it was a wonder how he hadn't smashed it to pieces yet. It startled Jaeger into shutting off his own phone and shoving it back into his pants pocket with some struggle, given how tight the garment was. The student fumbled to grab his pencil again while Levi already had a pen in each hand, caps snug on the opposite ends.

"Back to work. Next we'll–" Buzz. Levi pressed a button to silence it. “–focus on last Monday’s lecture, but after this it’s up to you to keep–” Another buzz. Levi silenced it. “–the goddamn knowledge from spilling out your ears–” A third buzz and Levi was ready to fling his phone out the window, but for the sake of the perplexed student before him he managed to restrain himself. “–and if you’ll just _let me handle something for a fucking second I’ll be able to do that_.”

Jaeger gave him a slow nod, eyes reflecting the reluctance of his actions. “Yeah, okay.” He kept aiming sideways glances at Levi for a few minutes afterward, but Levi was too preoccupied with the incessant messages to give a damn. If he ended up cracking the glass screen, it was Erwin who was going to pay for it.

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> Oh, come now, Levi. You’re not much fun when you play pretend like this.

>> Can’t you set aside a few moments to enjoy yourself?

>> I’m sure your student would understand if you took a small break to fantasize.

>> I could pick you up tonight, have dinner at my humble abode?

>> It’s a Saturday. You don’t have work tomorrow.

>> As such, you can… loosen the collar a bit.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> can i get a go fuck yourself

>> you are impeding on my student’s learning

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> You aren’t obligated to tutor him, no? It’s up to him to process the material that is taught in class.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> it’s my job to make sure he understands it, idiot. if i just usher him through the class, then he’ll end up on his ass outside a soup kitchen with a degree he didn’t earn for a career he’d be shit at

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> Hm.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> what

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> You care much more about other people than you let on, don’t you?

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> go shove a stick up your ass

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> I was going to suggest taking that one out of yours to make room for something a tad different.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> i’m not going to cyber with you

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> Aren’t you?

 

“Um, Dr. Levi?”

“What.”

“I can leave if what you’re doing is import–”

“It’s _fine_ ,” Levi snarled, “just a jackass trying to get my attention. Not important.” Buzz buzz buzz. Jaeger aimed another look at him. He rolled his eyes, snapped a large butterfly clip on his notes to keep them together, and smacked the packet of paper down in front of the student. “Take them and give them back to me on Monday.”

“Tomorrow you mean?” Jaeger asked. “We agreed that we would meet both days this weekend.”

“Just get them back to me,” Levi replied, gritting his teeth.

“Yes, sir,” the student replied, jerking up from his seat. Levi gave him an indifferent wave as he grabbed his bag and muttered out a few words of profuse thanks, but his absence only made Levi feel all the more tense.

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> I am curious about what level of solicitations will get you to reciprocate.

>> Must I get down on my knees and beg?

>> I wouldn’t say no if you wanted to try a different dynamic.

>> What do you think?

 

A deep blush stained Levi’s pale cheeks, no matter how stoic a face he managed to retain. He crossed his legs and ran a hand through his hair, fingers coming back moist from sweat. The cafe wasn’t very warm at all, yet Levi’s lungs were being squeezed by hot hands that made them ache. He slowly began to shuffle his remaining papers back into his bag, and noticed that in his rush to leave, Jaeger had left his pens and pencils scattered across his side of the table. Never without a need for writing utensils, Levi picked them up and shoved them into an outer pocket. His phone kept demanding his attention, the vibrations making the table shake in outraged protest. He swallowed and took a deep breath.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> no

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> That wasn’t exactly a yes or no question.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> jerk yourself off, you horny asshole

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> Why would I if I have someone as lovely as you to do it for me?

 

Levi froze with his fingers hovering over the screen. Where a snappish retort made his fingertips tingle before, now there was only numbness as the thought dropped out of his mind. Seconds ticked on by without his response or another text from Erwin. He set his phone down and looped his bag over his shoulder.

 

_Lovely_. That was new. His eyebrows twitched as he tried to decide whether the term suited him or not, but he never came to a conclusion for his phone started buzzing again.

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> Ignoring me again?

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> no

>> if i agree to go to your place, will you leave me the fuck alone until then?

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> No promises.

>> But I can say I’ll be considerably more satisfied.

>> What time is good for you?

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> five thirty i guess

>> at the park

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> I’ll look forward to it.

 

Another dropped thought made Levi’s fingers go still as he nodded a goodbye to the baristas at the counter and left the café. The wind had picked up to a full-blown gale, sending scraps of paper flying into the air with wads of other city grime. Levi squinted and started walking, and it was only when he’d safely closed his door and hung his coat up on the rack that he realized Erwin had texted him one last thing before going silent.

 

— Message from: Erwin Smith —

>> <3

 

Levi exhaled through his nose. He pressed his lips together and trembled.

 

— Message to: Erwin Smith —

>> <3

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alternate title: _In Which Erwin is a Horny Bastard and Levi Wants None of His Shit._
> 
> This chapter was brought to you by [phone condoms.](http://www.psfk.com/2013/04/phone-condoms-water-protection.html#!S0BQR)


	9. Chapter 9

Levi had barely finished his last song by the time Erwin had arrived to pick him up. When he sat down at his usual bench – thankfully not wearing the ski hat in lieu of a simple busboy hat – Levi pretended that he didn’t see him, his fingers dancing across the keys and filling the space around him with unrelenting sound. The wind had driven many parkgoers away, but the few that remained on the benches huddled together or at chess tables focused on the game before them seemed to sway along with the music. Or maybe it was just the wind. Whatever.

Once he finished, Levi took his music from the stand and tucked it away in his bag. Erwin rose to his feet and offered him a hand before he got up from the bench.

Levi aimed him an accusatory glare. “Suddenly being a gentleman?”

Erwin took his hand and kissed it, warm lips making cold skin tingle. “It isn’t very sudden if you pay attention.”

“Oh, I’m supposed to believe that with all the horseshit you were flinging my way when I was trying to teach?” Levi snatched his hand away and turned on his heels so his back faced Erwin. The wind seeped through the shaved parts of his scalp and kneaded between his locks of black hair, making him shiver. He hadn’t thought to bring his peacoat, but considering what connotations Erwin had so delicately rammed into his proposition he probably wouldn’t need it, anyway.

Levi looked over his shoulder and squinted at Erwin. “Where’d you park your car?”

“I didn’t.” Erwin took out his wallet and waved a yellow farecard in the air. “I took mass transportation.”

“You mean the train?”

“No, I mean the MTA’s new publicly available helicopter,” Erwin teased, tucking his farecard back into his wallet. “Yes, the train.”

Levi crossed his arms with his eyes rolling back into his head. “From the idiotically pretentious way you phrase things, ‘mass transportation’ could be you stepping into the toilet and pulling some stupid Harry Potter shit.”

Erwin chuckled as he stepped forward and held out a crooked arm for Levi to take. “A fan of young adult fiction, are you?”

For a moment, Levi didn’t notice the outstretched elbow in favor of fidgeting around with the papers in his bag and making sure that the metal buttons were snapped shut: even in a nicer part of town, an unsecured bag was viable for some shit to come along and shimmy out the contents. When he did look up though, his jaw clenched and any warmth that was in his eyes sank into his cheeks.

“Who am I, your daughter on her wedding day?” Erwin didn’t respond, but before he could let his arm down, Levi slipped his hand through the space between Erwin’s torso and the inside of his elbow, and kept a tight hold on him. He must have caught the smirk on Erwin’s face, for he said, “Shut the fuck up and walk with me, you slop of diarrhea.”

 

They walked in synchronization, Erwin’s steel-bottomed shoes clacking against the pavement and Levi’s leather boots making dull thuds with every step. The thick heels elevated Levi so the top of his head just lined up with Erwin’s jaw; it wasn’t much, but at least his taller height made it easier to hold onto his arm without looking like a child. The wind kicked up Levi’s coat and wormed through the slits between the buttons on his dress shirt, making him envy the wool overcoat Erwin wore. His bare fingers gripped the rough fabric tighter as a strong gale hit the two of them in the face when they turned a corner and faced the bustling avenue.

Erwin turned to Levi and his mouth moved as if to speak, but a rush of wind carried the sound away before Levi could catch his words. He cupped a hand to his ear and shouted, “What?”

“I asked if you were cold,” Erwin replied, matching Levi’s volume. “You’re shivering.”

His teeth chattered despite himself. “I’m fine.”

“Do you want my coat?”

Levi pursed his lips at the proposition and squinted when another wind blew by. “Do you want to eat shit?” The light changed and Levi took off, separating his arm from Erwin’s in favor of shoving his pinkened hands into his pockets. The echo of Erwin’s footsteps faded as his sped up and scraped against the asphalt. He didn’t look behind him when he reached the opposite block, and kept walking until a strong hand caught him from behind. “I’m not going to make a fool of myself wearing your big-ass coat.”

“I’m not asking you to,” Erwin resigned, “but you just walked past the train station without even noticing.”

 

The wind died down and gave way to stagnant air as Levi and Erwin descended the brick steps and passed through the turnstiles.The platform was already packed with people with heavy bags under their eyes, newspapers printed in foreign languages stuffed into their coat pockets and smartphones clenched in their weary hands. Erwin kept a hand between Levi’s shoulders like he was the experienced subway rider and Levi the overly curious tourist that might fall into the tracks if Erwin wasn’t there to keep track of him. A guitarist – no more than twenty, Levi supposed – sat against the wall at the end of the platform where Levi and Erwin stood, playing some church hymn and singing low in his throat. His guitar case lay open at his feet, wrinkled bills and glittering coins stark against the dull velvet. Levi shrugged Erwin off to fish out his wallet. Two tens, three twenties, a fifty. He wasn’t about to ask for change from the kid, so in silence he walked over and dropped $20 into the guitar case. The musician himself didn’t cease playing to comment, but gave a gracious nod of his head and let his lips stretch wider by a fraction of an inch.

Erwin was staring at Levi again once he returned to his side. “What the fuck do you want now?”

The glint in the corners of Erwin’s eyes told him the answer before Erwin’s lips even parted. “You never struck me as a very charitable person.”

“Must you comment on every shitty thing I do?” Levi muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets and staring at the fading yellow paint on the cement.

Erwin shifted his weight and directed his gaze to the automated screen that displayed the estimated train arrival times in green and orange letters. “That’s hardly a shitty thing to do, I wouldn’t think.”

“Leave me alone.”

 

A prerecorded voice spoke over the PA overhead, warning passengers to stay away from the edge of the platform as the train entered the station. The train itself rushed in not a minute later, already packed with people clinging to the metal poles that stretched from the ceiling to the floor. Levi frowned and resisted when Erwin tried to usher him through the doors; it earned him a confused look and a low hum of questioning.

“I’m not cramming myself into that smelly cesspool of germs,” Levi explained in disdain.

“Come, now, Levi, you live in one of the most densely populated cities in the world, and you complain about riding on a crowded train?” The pressure of the crowd funneling into the train from behind them inched Levi forward, but still he planted himself to the cement as an immovable barrier. Levi’s lips curled ever downward before Erwin came close to his ear and whispered, “Get on the train, Levi.”

Levi cursed the betrayal of his body as warm shivers made his skin prickle in delight. He kept his feet glued together, but the warm air from the train car was heating up the cold sweat in his palms, trying to lure him in. “Who are you, my mother? Why didn’t you just call a taxi?”

“Too much of a pain. In we go.”

Before Levi could say another word, Erwin nudged his lower back and tugged him into the train. A protective arm wrapped around his shoulders and kept him close to Erwin’s side as more people came in afterward, until a conductor a few cars down shooed the excess of passengers away so the doors could close. The train lurched forward, and in order not to fall Levi clung onto Erwin tighter than he’d meant. Erwin hung onto the iron bar overhead, towering over the rest of the passengers. The scent of Erwin’s deodorant overpowered the stench of sweating commuters and shitty coffee, but his body heat and itchy coat made Levi all the more uncomfortable. He closed his eyes and tried to will the sickness in his stomach away, but the saliva in his mouth made his tongue stick to his hard palate.

Erwin’s hand slid up his back and cupped the nape of his neck. His thumb rubbed over the shaved hair on the back of his head and made Levi tense up. “Are you alright?” Erwin asked, glancing down at him, eyebrows furrowed.

“Just shut up,” Levi muttered. He leaned his head into Erwin and took a deep breath. “Maybe if you took a fucking moment to consider my well-being before you’ve already flushed me down the shitter you’d know.”

Erwin fell silent as the train trundled along before screeching to a halt at the next stop. More people piled in and put more pressure on the overfull crowd, and Levi’s growing proximity to the obese man that smelled like sour cream and onion potato chips made him heave. Before the doors closed, he caught a strong whiff of oxidizing piss, and the next thought he had was how happy he was to have an empty stomach. He pressed his face further into Erwin’s shoulder and tried to focus on what kind of fabric softener he used to make his coat smell like peonies.

“I do appreciate the physical affection,” Erwin tried, “but if you really aren’t feeling well we can get off and take a taxi the rest of the way.”

“What world do you live in where you can take a taxi anywhere below Times Square past 3:00 PM?”

“The wealthy need not wait long for a taxi.”

“Keep flaunting your intoxicating amounts of money and someone’s going to rob you, asshole.”

“It hasn’t happened yet,” Erwin quipped, tugging on a lock of Levi’s hair between two teasing fingers. “We’re approaching the next stop. Do you want to get off?”

Levi considered the notion. The stench of a soiled diaper stung his nose as a mother hurriedly tried to spray her perfume on the unfortunate child’s bottom. He forced the back of his throat shut and grimaced.

“Please,” he muttered back, “make sure it has an air freshener installed.”

“Of course.”

 

When the taxi dropped them off in front of Erwin’s house, Erwin ushered Levi out of the car and convinced him that he would pay the fare. Levi held his arms tight over his chest against the cold wind as he walked across the pavement and scaled the stairs. A red awning hung over the simple doorway, illuminated by an orange lamp above the mailbox. Similar houses lined up along the block, attached on both sides to other homes but all varying by the style of the door or the color of the curtains hanging in the windows. It didn’t seem as pretentious as Levi expected, but then again he was anticipating a 17-bed 26-bath colossus of a house that went for more money than Levi would ever make. But, to his relief, Erwin was not a billionaire and at least had enough sense to confine his living space to something more reasonable.

 

If it had more than four baths, though, Levi was fucking out.

 

Erwin met him at the door and offered a quick kiss to his cheek before taking out his keys. Levi flinched backward by habit, but when he realized what Erwin was doing he stayed in place and accepted the gesture of affection.

“You’re blushing,” Erwin remarked.

“Thanks for thinking the state of my skin is worth commenting upon.” Erwin chuckled under his breath as he looped an arm around Levi’s waist and led him inside.

Regardless of whatever rules Erwin might’ve had about shoes in the house, Levi left them by the door. Erwin helped him out of his coat and disappeared into a nearby closet as Levi walked around, examining everything with the most critical of eyes. The living room was filled with modern furniture — that color square bullshit that Levi never understood — and backed by an open-brick wall on the farthest side. The air was warm enough to make Levi feel sick. The scent of cooking meat added to the atmosphere, and in a desperate plea Levi’s stomach growled. Was that roast beef? Or pork? Damn, he could smell potatoes cooking, too. He sat down in a leather chair and set his bag down before Erwin came back in with that line-smile on his face again.

“Dinner won’t be ready for another half hour or so,” Erwin greeted, absently rubbing his palms together. “Would you like a drink?”

Levi drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair, staring off in the direction of what he guessed was the kitchen. “What do you have?”

Erwin held up two fingers, gesturing for Levi to come with him. For how his shoulders ached, Levi almost told Erwin to go and surprise him if he couldn’t just say shit outright. But, the lure of decent alcohol pulled him to his feet and sent him walking after Erwin.

 

The kitchen was all white and chrome: clean, but not without faded tomato stains next to the stove and muck dried into the cracks between the floor tiles. Several skylights disrupted the white ceiling and allowed light in — during the day, at least. At the moment, though, all Levi could see was a black sky with the occasional star or two poking out of the void.

The roast beef-pork-thing smelled even better now, but when Levi turned around, the vast bar on the other end of the room seemed much more palatable at the moment. Erwin was looking at him and waiting for his jaw to drop.

“Bring a lot of your whores back here?” Levi commented, crossing his arms.

“No,” Erwin replied, “most of them only see the first bedroom on the second floor.”

“Classy.” He walked over to the bar and sat on a stool as Erwin went behind the counter. His fingers danced over the caps and necks of the bottles of liquor, but upon finding one that seemed satisfactory he gripped it in a tight fist and presented it to Levi.

“Highland Park 30 Scotch,” Erwin said. He held the bottle up to the light to illuminate the golden color of the whiskey. “Surprisingly sweet.” He took up another bottle, setting the first one down on the counter before Levi. “Macallan 21 Fine Oak Scotch Whiskey,” he read, “quite spicy. And this one,” he selected a third bottle, “Speyburn 25 Year Old Single Malt.”

“All this, and yet you have at least two bottles of McCormick hiding behind the Jack Daniel’s.”

Erwin looked over his shoulder to where Levi pointed, then back at him with a smirk.

“You believe I give all my whores the same high-quality beverages as I give you?”

“I’m honored,” Levi spat. “Macallan is fine.” Erwin nodded and grabbed two glasses from the top shelf. Not a drop splashed out as he poured the amber drink and set Levi’s cup on the counter with a square coaster underneath it. Levi picked it up and swirled the liquid around before taking a whiff. He wrinkled his nose and coughed before taking a sip. “Not bad.”

Erwin nodded and drank from his own glass as well. “I would hope so.”

Minutes on the analog clock ticked away in silence as they drank, with Levi staring at any particularly uninteresting wall in lieu of staring at the man before him. Sweat started to dampen his underarms and the skylight fogged up from the delicious warmth emanating from the oven. Once in a while, Erwin would head over to the stove and turn the slow-cooking potatoes, but other than that and the occasional refilling of Levi’s glass, he did not much else. The silence was uncomfortable from the start, but about twenty minutes in it was just becoming intoxicating.

“You’re a shitty host,” Levi started, glaring at his cup. Erwin glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. “Does your ability to hold a conversation turn off when you’re in your own home?”

“What do you mean?”

He set his glass down louder than he’d meant. “Other than some meaningless banter, you haven’t even made a half-assed effort to say something.” He leaned his cheek on his knuckles and aimed a disinterested look at Erwin.

“I didn’t think I’d ever hear a lecture on proper hostmanship from a man who made me help him with housework the last time I came over,” Erwin replied. He finished his drink and while pouring himself another topped Levi off as well. “Unless you’d like to clean the toilets upstairs, you’ll have to deal with my predilection for silence.”

“Does being a business analyst require you to talk like a pretentious asshole all the time?” Levi crossed a foot over his knee and leaned forward. “Come to think of it, what is your work schedule? Obviously loose enough for you to harass those with more important things to do more often than not.”

“It’s a private business, so I determine my own hours. Most of the time I’m working at my desk, but sometimes I travel.”

“Uh huh,” Levi muttered. “Interesting.”

“Have you ever been?”

“What, traveling?” He considered the question, rolling his eyes to and fro. “France and Britain, but nowhere else. I work five days a week like a normal person, and going through airport security is one big-ass hassle that isn’t worth my time, anyway.”

“I see.”

Levi’s stomach growled. “Are we going to eat or what?”

“In a few minutes,” Erwin replied, glancing at the clock. “I’m sure you cook enough to know how long it takes to make a roasted pork shoulder.”

“Usually I’d plan it so the meal’d be nearly done by the time guests arrived, not make them sit around long enough to take three long shits in the bathroom.”

“Is all your humor centered around bodily excrements?”

“Better than sitting here staring at each other.” Jesus Christ, where did the smooth-talking bastard side of him run off to? Levi thought, squinting as he took another sip of his whiskey. Maybe he was just a lightweight and lost his sense of socialization when drunk off his ass? “For the love of fuck, I’d rather suck your dick than continue doing nothing.”

“Oh?” An interested light took shape in Erwin’s eyes. “Perhaps I’ll say even less now, then.”

“Oh, now is the time you choose to bring back the horny pig part of you. Fantastic.”

“If you’re that interested in being interrogated, let me ask you this,” Erwin leaned over the counter and ran his thumb along Levi’s jaw, “why do you like playing the piano in the park so much?”

The question numbed Levi’s lips. He had already opened his mouth with some sarcastic reply, but where the comment lay before, now there was only confused dumbfoundedness. He closed his mouth and thought about it.

A few moments later, and all he could say was, “That’s a stupid question.”

“But you thought about it,” Erwin pointed out, “so there’s something more than just the obvious.”

“That’s not always the case.”

“But it is.”

Levi slid his glass away from him so it wasn’t in danger of being knocked over. He used the stool to lift himself onto the counter, sitting in front of Erwin. “Let me ask you a question, then. Why did you keep wasting your time watching me?”

“Because I was interested. One would think a law teacher would be able to notice something that apparent.” Erwin’s hands led Levi’s legs over the other side of the counter, then danced around his waist. Even like that, Levi only just met Erwin’s eye level, if not missing it by half an inch. “So what is it? Attention, fame, convenience?”

“Why does it matter, as long as I’m playing there?”

“Because, Levi,” Erwin leaned forward and kissed Levi’s cheek, “it seems to matter very much to you.”

Levi couldn’t blame the heat coming from the oven for his reddening face, but he tried to play it off as that, anyway. “Are you trying to be romantic?”

Lips trailed down his neck and nipped at his collarbone, leaving burning spots of skin in their wake. Levi shrugged his shoulders and turned his head away, but it only served to encourage Erwin’s advances. “Am I succeeding?”

“Stop.” Levi put his hands up and tried again to wean Erwin off him, but only the sound of the oven timer going off managed to draw Erwin away from him. He took the opportunity to climb down from the counter and finish his drink, but the ache in his cheeks wasn’t going to go away for a while. His legs had turned into quivering jelly that wouldn’t keep Levi upright; he stumbled as he walked over to the kitchen table and sat himself down.

The back of his mind registered that Erwin was smirking at him again. “Why are you staring at me?”

“You’re entertaining.”

“Oh, so I’m just a spectacle to you?” he grumbled, leaning his head into his hands. He heard Erwin piling food onto dishes (probably gold-plated, for how this guy tended to relish in excess) and his stomach responded with an irritable growl. “Just gimme the goddamn food so you can suck my dick again.” He couldn’t help the wicked grin that spread on his face when he heard a serving spoon full of potatoes fall back into the pan. Erwin swore under his breath and grabbed a paper towel, thinking Levi hadn’t noticed a thing. “Oh, Mr. Handsome has a mouth on him. Better get an enema for all that shit in your mouth.” He snickered — an unfamiliar feeling — and jabbed a thumb back to the bar. “Left my glass on the counter. Get me some more whiskey, you little bitch.” Levi’s shoulders began to shake as the smile on his face stretched wider, snickers turning into delighted cackles.

“I’m going to spit in your food,” was Erwin’s only reply as he placed a messy plate before Levi.

“That’s fucking disgusting,” Levi retorted, flicking his fork with a fingernail. As Erwin passed him by, he made to jab his ass with the metal tines, but before he could get close Erwin grabbed his wrist and knocked the fork out of his hands. “Smartly done. Go gemme another one.”

Instead of replying right away, Erwin tugged Levi out of his seat by his captive hand and kissed him with fervor, his mouth dry of any saliva. Levi, on the other hand, let dribbles of drool slip out of the corners of his lips, his tongue fumbling in Erwin’s mouth in some semblance of a French kiss. He could taste the alcohol on his breath. Erwin’s hands were still greasy from handling the dishes and he was using Levi’s dress shirt as a towel, but Levi himself was too preoccupied with getting closer to the intoxicating heat of Erwin’s body.

In a second, though, it was over. Erwin pulled back and steadied Levi with his hands on his shoulders.

“Why did you stop?” Levi snapped, pursing his lips. He wiped the spit away with his thumb.

Erwin’s face hardened, eyebrows furrowed and lips drawn tight in the solemn form of his line-smile. Levi tensed up as his stomach shuddered. “The food’s going to get cold.”

“The food…” As soon as his sluggish mind processed the statement, Levi glared up at Erwin to see him with the biggest shit-eating grin. He smacked him across the cheek with the back of his hand and barked, “Fuck the food! It’s probably shit anyways.” He went to wrap his arms around Erwin’s neck and bring him down for another kiss, but Erwin himself jerked away with another solemn expression.

“Why must you always hit me?” he asked, folding his arms. “And insult me on top of that.”

“What?” Levi squinted and straightened up. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m referring to your consistently cold attitude toward me. Do you not like me, Levi?”

Levi scoffed. “You sound like a child.”

“I wish you’d take me seriously.” Erwin turned away from him and circled around the table. He moved over to the stove and piled food onto a plate for himself, not daring to make eye contact with Levi. “Never mind it. Let’s eat.”

Levi swallowed hard and rounded on Erwin with curled fists. “Don’t give me that. What are you talking about?”

“I already answered that question,” Erwin replied. His voice cut through the air like the knife in his hand, slicing the tender roast beef. He disregarded the juice spilling off the cutting board and onto the counter; Levi grabbed a cloth and swiped up the mess. “Do you ever stop cleaning?”

“You’re not a field of flowers to deal with, either.” Levi chucked the soiled cloth aside and leered up at Erwin. “Your libido is a fucking monster.”

“Then why do you bother entertaining it, only to make me feel terrible about it afterward?” The knife came down hard on the smooth wood and made Levi flinch.

“Oh, it’s all about you,” he mocked, furrowing his eyebrows. “Do you even give a shit about me, or am I just a toy for you to play with?” A dreadful silence filled his ears. He grit his teeth. “What is this relationship?”

“It could be romantic, but you seem so repulsed by me that making such advances would be impossible,” Erwin retorted. He slammed the knife down on the counter hard enough to scratch its surface. Levi jumped back and reflexively held his arms up in a fighting stance, but his legs still wobbled and the back of his neck still tingled too much for him to have confidence. Where was the front door? Where were his shoes? Where was his coat? Where was his bag? His eyes darted about as the sweet buzz of alcohol receded. Erwin’s glare burned. “Why do you bother if you’re so disgusted by me?”

“Whoever said I was disgusted by you?”

“You can’t even call me by my first name outside of the bedroom.”

“Is that the only problem you have?” Levi spat. “Fine. Erwin. I’ll get used to it.”

“If only it were that simple,” Erwin snapped. He turned back to the stove and slammed the lid down on the open pot before throwing his plate into the sink, food and all. Levi took another step back and held his arms tighter to his chest.

“What do you want me to do? Be an affectionate, cuddly teddy bear?” Levi chewed on his fingernails. The hunger in his stomach had long since ceased. “Find some other twink then. I’m not that kind of fuckbuddy.”

“Is that all you want to be?” Levi’s tongue weighed like lead in his mouth. His vision smudged around the edges but not enough to keep him from seeing the wet droplets sliding down Erwin’s cheeks. He bit off a frayed piece of skin inside his cheek and turned away.

“I don’t want to talk about this.”

“I figured you wouldn’t.”

“It’s been a month!” Levi shouted, whipping back around and wishing that he was taller so he could punch Erwin in the face without having to lean up on his toes. “Do you expect me to marry you just because we had a quick fuck or two?”

“No!” Erwin scrubbed the rims of his eyes with the heel of his palm and wobbled on the hand he’d leaned against the counter. “I expect you to be honest.”

“I am being honest, you—” Levi grit his teeth and sucked in his lips. “Erwin.”

“I’m finding that hard to believe,” Erwin growled. “Why don’t you just leave?”

“Maybe I fucking will.” Before Erwin could reach out and catch his wrist, Levi backed out of the kitchen on fleeting footsteps. To his luck, he ran into several pieces of furniture which impeded his graceful exit, but Erwin was calling his name with a more desperate tone of voice each time and Jesus Christ, Levi needed to get out of there. He snatched up his shoes but hesitated a moment for his coat: which door led to the closet? Oh, fuck it. The coat hanging on the wall by the door would have to do. Levi took it, and without looking back he sprinted out of the house and slammed the door behind him. His own name rang discordantly in his ears.

 

The wind had sharpened its knife since Levi was outside last. The streetlights bathed the white cement in orange light, but their presences were few and far between, leaving most of the road in the dark. Levi didn’t stop sprinting for several blocks, and upon reaching a road big enough to have traffic lights, he turned the corner so he’d have the advantage if Erwin came after him. He flicked away the pieces of asphalt that clung to his socks and slipped on his shoes, but with the coat, he struggled. The thick scent of Erwin’s cologne thwacked him with a heavy club, but it was only when Levi wormed his arms into the thick sleeves that he realized the flaw in not taking the time to find his own coat. As warm as Erwin’s was, it lacked three things that Levi really wished it didn’t: his wallet, his phone, and his keys.

“Damn it,” Levi muttered. He picked at the pieces of lint clinging to the cuffs and burrowed his head into the raised collar. It was good enough, albeit a few sizes too large for Levi’s figure. He dug his hands into the pockets and… there. His heart jumped around in his ribcage when his fingers found a crumpled bill in the corner of the left coat pocket; upon unrolling it, though, it was only a $10 bill. Like hell that was going to get him a taxi ride to the nearest station, let alone home. In a world where he had his cellphone to call a taxi service. Or one where he wasn’t ass-deep in a residential area where there weren’t any taxis to hail, either.

He turned around and looked at the empty street behind him. Up and down the intersection were Cadillacs, Mercedes Benz’s, and the occasional Rolls Royce — those kinds of cars on which pretentious assholes with obscene amounts of wealth wasted their money. Levi considered for a moment if he could use the techniques his upperclassman friends taught him back in high school to steal himself a nice car to get back home. However, his shrinking common sense exerted that that was a terrible idea, and he should focus on that stupid mailbox sitting at the corner instead. Look at that stupid blue fucker. It’s always trying to put mail into one of those stupid-ass motherfuckers that Levi had bruises on the backs of his hands and wrists. Stupid shitty mailbox. This was all its fault. That son of a condescending fuck. He ought to give it a good whack, show it what for. Yeah, that was a great idea!

In an instant, Levi was rearing back on one foot, and swinging the other one in front of him in a sloppy front kick. He missed the mailbox by a solid four inches, and fell forward into its clutches. To his unbelievable luck, his nose took one for the team by making contact with the blue menace first, and subsequently bursting open into a spectacular nosebleed. Levi lay slumped face-forward against the mailbox, the rest of his body dragging in the dirt and crumbs of cement. Blood dripped onto one of his clenched fists and wormed its way between his thumb and curled index finger. See what he meant? Son of a condescending fuck. It was laughing at him. Mocking him.

Levi drew back on his knees and stood, preparing to take another swing at the immovable mailbox, until he thought he heard the sound of his own name. He ceased his justified assault and listened for booted feet running after him, or a smooth baritone broken out of tune by desperation. The wind let out a hollow sigh to fill the silence. Levi hugged his sides and stared down the block from which he came with hardened eyes. Erwin’s blonde hair, imposing but warm figure, and gentle line-smile were nowhere to be seen. He swallowed as the weight of being alone dragged on his limbs. Erwin was coming. He had to be coming. Levi stole his goddamn coat that was probably worth over $800; he wasn’t just gonna let that slide. Minutes ticked on by.

Fine, if it was going to be like that, then Levi would just break into his house while he was at work the next day and take his own coat back then. And, now that he thought about it, his bag, which he’d forgotten on the way out, as well. Oh, fuck him. He should’ve known this was going to be shitty from the start. Since when did those coincidental Hollywoodesque romances ever turn out well when an omnipresent camera wasn’t glaring at him? Hell, it wasn’t even a romance. It was just a fling stretched out by Levi’s weekday schedule. Erwin was right: Levi didn’t like him one bit. He was a coercive jackass who, while getting pissed at Levi for not being honest, was being a passive aggressive piece of shit himself. Levi didn’t need him.

With a huff of false confidence, Levi turned back to the intersection and crossed the street. There had to be some deli around here where he could get food or a pack of cigarettes. At the moment, the soothing lure of the latter seemed most appealing.

 

It took about fifteen minutes to find a convenience store. Seriously, fuck the outer boroughs. If Levi was wandering around back in his own neighborhood, he wouldn’t have been able to throw a stone without hitting some deli’s front window. Nevertheless, Levi held the $10 bill in a tight fist as he went inside. The bleak lighting made him squint, but even stumbling he managed to find his way to the counter. An acne-ridden guy in his 20-somethings stood at the register, his chin in his hand and teeth busy chewing on his cuticles. Levi tapped his fingers on the metal counter to get his attention.

“Pack of American Spirit,” he muttered. The cashier glanced at him with a scrutinizing look. Levi realized that he probably looked ridiculous enough what with the dried blood all over his face, but coupled with the oversized (and expensive) coat he felt like a small-time criminal.

“ID?” the cashier asked, the tired and scratchy tone of his voice resembling that of many students Levi has had to deal with.

Levi growled under his breath. “What, do I look like I’m under 21, shithead?”

Another glance, up and down. “Maybe. Can’t sell you the cigarettes without ID, man.”

“Don’t call me ‘man.’ I’m not your friend, I’m a customer who’s giving you money that helps you get your fuckin’ paycheck at the end of the week.” Levi unrolled the sweaty $10 bill on the counter and flicked it toward the cashier. “American Spirit, and a lighter. Please.”

The other man took up the bill and held it up in front of the light. Oh, fuck this guy.

“American Spirit’s $13.20, lighter’s $1.50. You’re about $5 short.” He raised an eyebrow and frowned. “Got any more?”

Levi knew there was nothing else in the deep pockets of his stolen coat, but he checked anyway just to make it seem like he’d lost his cash on the way. “Fuck.”

“Don’t have the money, can’t have the smokes.”

“Think I don’t know that, asshole?” Levi barked. “Look, put it on a tab. I’ll come back later and pay the rest.”

“You’re under the influence, too,” the cashier continued, sniffing the air to indicate that Levi’s breath smelled thickly of alcohol, “and I don’t want to lose my job.”

“For the love of fuck!” He slammed his fist down on the counter, making the boxes of granola bars and bottles of 5-hour energy quake in their places. The cashier straightened and pursed his lips. “Give me the fucking cigarettes, kid.”

“Take your money somewhere else.” He flicked the $10 back at Levi in disdain. “Leave before I call the police.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

The cashier took his phone out of his back pocket and waved it in front of Levi. “Get the fuck out of here.”

 

Levi found himself next on a park bench, out of his only $10 (he left it on the counter when he stormed out of the deli), disheveled and curled up in Erwin’s coat. He was loath to find any solace in something that was Erwin’s, but the night was growing colder and he was too shitfaced to let his pride get in the way of the necessary. His head ached something terrible, and the cold seat on which he was resting it did nothing to help the pain. He needed to take a piss. And maybe puke. Maybe he could piss and puke on Erwin. The shithead would deserve it. Just for being an overwhelming pile of shit. The mailbox would deserve the same treatment. And the cashier. And Levi himself. Yeah, that would make his night: pissing his pants and vomiting all over himself, and with the blood on his face? He’d be embodiment of sexy.

Despite all this, Levi found his eyelids drooping and his limbs going numb as sleep overtook his fatigued body. He was sure that he was going to wake up with frostbite in his fingers and toes, but anything was better than standing in that kitchen with Erwin asking him all the questions he didn’t want to answer and Erwin’s reddened eyes and Erwin’s tears that wouldn’t ever taste as good as his lips and Erwin forcing bitter words into his mouth.

Levi’s stomach growled. He prayed for unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _How to be a heartbreaker_  
>  Boys they like the look of danger  
> We'll get 'em falling for a stranger, a player  
> Singing I lo-lo-love you  
> (At least I think I do) 
> 
>  
> 
> I'm pretty sure the best imagery in this story thus far is Levi beating up a [USPS mailbox](http://www.nikkisylianteng.com/usps_files/MailboxIntro.jpg).
> 
>  
> 
> _Look at that menacing fucker._  
>  _What a piece of shit._


	10. Chapter 10

Blurs like video clips flooded Levi’s dreams. The bench shifted and warped underneath his body as if it had turned to putty, and every time Levi opened his eyes the scene around him shifted from nighttime to sunrise to midday to nighttime again, from a park to a forest to a barren desert with the sun glaring down at him. The howls of the wind turned into his own panting breaths, or maybe they were somebody else’s – a shadow leaned over him and gestured for him to get up, but the dead can’t get up and move around on their own, and Levi was dead so they were stupid for thinking he could walk with… whoever was there. Levi’s head lolled about and threw him into vertigo as an awkward pressure stood on his feet. He fell forward and found himself eating sand, no, gravel, no, just shivering concrete and a puddle of his own warm fluids. Tsk tsk tsk, what have you done to yourself? a voice scolded, chuckling to itself. The hands of God looped under his arms and pulled him up, or maybe it was just a park security officer taking him away because fuck wouldn’t that be great? An unpleasant buzzing sound filled his ears and his feet started vibrating, oh great, now his feet were vibrators, a foot fetishist would go apeshit for him, maybe that was who was dragging him away, some foot fetishist who found him and his vibrating feet and now he was being taken down to some sex cavern and god he was fucked. He was lying on the bed, right now, it was heated and smelled like leather and probably in half a second or so there’d be one big-ass cock between his feet and that’d be it for him, that’d be it…

 

“Are you going to wake up or not?” Levi flinched as he emerged from the thick clouds of an intoxicated slumber to find himself in an unfamiliar space. Apartment, living room, couch, _one bitch of a headache_. He squinted and gripped his forehead with a groan.

“ _Fuck_ me.” A sharp voice cackled in response to his dismay. As the room came into focus, Levi spotted a figure sitting down on a chair nearby with a mug in its hand.

“With the bizarre things you were mumbling, you would guess you wouldn’t want anything even slightly phallic anywhere near you.” The figure reached forward and nudged Levi’s back. “Sit up, you kook. I made you some extra strong black tea, since you’d probably hit me if I made you coffee.” Levi wobbled as he rose, and all of a sudden gravity seemed six times stronger than it usually was. He hissed as his back crackled in protest to every movement.

He held out his hand with his eyes closed and muttered, “Gimme.” Without thinking, the figure handed the hot mug over, and Levi nearly dropped it out of a reflex. “Are you trying to injure me, Hange?”

Hange laughed, and was careful this time when giving Levi the mug, keeping a firm hand on its bottom until Levi had a good hold on it. Levi took a deep sip and sighed in relief. “About time you woke up. It’s almost 10:00.”

Levi let his head fall back onto the arm of the couch. “Is it a Sunday?”

“Yep!”

“ _Fuck_ me.”

Hange cackled again, rising from the chair and heading over to the front door. Levi noticed that his coat – Erwin’s coat, he remembered with a sick feeling in his stomach – was hanging off the edge of the stairwell railing. Hange opened the door and went out for a minute before coming back inside with the daily newspaper. “Nice coat. Massive, though. Your boyfriend’s?” Hange’s eyebrows waggled, but Levi’s expression remained unchanged. He turned back to his mug and stared into the orange tea.

“He’s.” A lump rose in the back of his throat, but with a quick sip he managed to swallow it. “That’s irrelevant.”

“Oh?” Hange sat back down in the chair and opened the newspaper, crossing one leg over the other. “Any reason you were just taking a nap on some park bench in Bed-Stuy?”

“It’s not your goddamn business,” Levi snapped, but regretted it the second after when his head twinged. “You didn’t have to take me.”

“You’d rather I’d have left you there to drown in your own vomit?” Oh god, he _did_ puke. Levi looked down at himself to find unfamiliar clothes that were too big all over, but thankfully clean. He smacked his lips and found the sticky taste of his own bodily fluids there to accompany his awful hangover. “Geez, you of all people should know not to lie on your back after getting wasted. Lucky for you, it wasn’t all that chunky, so you had half a chance of just coughing it all out in your sleep–”

“ _Please_ ,” Levi interrupted, stern, “just shut up.”

Hange snickered and turned a page of the newspaper. “Either way, it would’ve been bad to have to explain that situation to the head of your department when the police found you all over New York in pieces. It just wouldn’t have sat right with me!” The chair creaked as Hange’s legs uncrossed and crossed again. “So, I dragged you over to my car, took ya home and cleaned you up.” Levi swallowed and turned to stare out the window over the couch. The bright sunlight was still too much for his fatigued eyes, so he squinted without looking back at Hange. “So what happened, boyfriend kick you out?”

“He wasn’t even my fucking boyfriend, Hange,” Levi snapped, gripping his mug and gritting his teeth. “It was a fling. It doesn’t even matter, so leave it alone before I walk out of here and get myself home.”

“Without any money or your cellphone?” _Dammit_. “No way, José, you’re sticking with me for now.” Hange laid down the newspaper and walked over to Levi before kneeling down and staring up at him with furrowed eyebrows. “Is it something serious?”

“It’s something that I don’t want to talk about.”

“Then will you at least tell me his address so I can go get your stuff? Assuming that’s where you left it.”

Levi frowned at his reflection in the window.“That’s not a good idea.”

“Why? Is he actually some sort of serial killer that experiments on his victims before throwing their bodies into the river?”

Levi turned around to find Hange’s eyes twinkling and lips curling into a smile. “Your criminal forensic shit isn’t cute.”

“Well, is he?”

“He’s a business analyst,” Levi said with contempt sticking to his tongue, “and probably asleep. Hell, maybe he just offed himself because he’s a spiteful son of a bitch.” His lips tightened as if they could pull the words back before they hit Hange’s ears. As his head throbbed, his stomach let out an unpleasant gurgle, and in a split second a disgusting feeling washed over his body. He flailed his arms about and tried to swallow the bile in his throat, but before he could say a word Hange was pulling him across the living room and throwing his head into the toilet. The mere touch of the surely bacteria-ridden ceramic on his skin made Levi retch.

“Sure did drink a lot last night, hm?” Hange commented, petting the back of his head. He shivered, coughing and recoiling from the toilet. “Haven’t seen you this hungover since the day after graduation.” Levi made an incoherent moan of discontent. Hange chuckled, and stood up to go turn on the shower on the opposite side of the bathroom. “Take off my clothes and get in the shower, hot stuff.”

Levi lifted his head and breathed, “You’re not funny.”

Hange placed a folded towel in his hands and whispered, “Sure I’m not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who knew Levi had a fear of foot fetishists. ~~Bad news for Erwin.~~
> 
> The day after graduation, Levi accidentally sucked a dick and woke up wearing a dress and hoop earrings.
> 
> (His ears weren't pierced beforehand.)


	11. Chapter 11

 

After his shower, Levi found a neat pile of his own clothes lying on the counter near the sink. He put them on and sniffed the collar; they were freshly laundered. He breathed at ease. At least Hange was smart enough to know that showing up at Erwin’s house in baggy clothes wasn’t going to help him not look like a dumbass. He left his used towel on the hook on the wall and left the bathroom to find himself in the living room again. Hange was nowhere to be seen.

“Hange?” Levi called, looking around.

Hange’s voice replied, bright and cheery as always, “In the kitchen! Just fiddling with a couple of things before we go.”

Levi followed the sound of plastic clacking and found himself standing before an incubator that almost touched the ceiling. Inside of it were stacks upon stacks of petri dishes, filled with all sorts of bubbling organisms that made Levi’s already queasy stomach turn. He looked over his shoulder to find Hange hunched over a microscope, one hand on the stage and the other wrapped around a cup of coffee.

“Do you actually cook in this kitchen or do you just use it as your meth lab?” he remarked, stepping away from the incubator. “Assuming you don’t just eat wads of cells for every damn meal.”

“Oh, but isn’t that what we all eat?” Hange replied, grinning. “Everything that’s food is cells, cells, cells, and inside of those,” Hange’s hands waved about, holding instruments that Levi definitely did not want flung his way, “proteins, nucleic acids, DNA, mRNA, tRNA, what have you! And we’re just cells studying cells. Basic biology for you, Ackerman.”

“Don’t say my last name.”

“Still not done hating your old woman, huh?” Hange teased. “You know that contempt isn’t immortal.”

“Neither is love.” Levi sat down on a stool and crossed his legs, staring off into no particular place.

“You should call her up sometime. She’d be happy to hear that you did something with your life.”

Levi leaned forward into his hand and let out a low groan, his teeth clenching from the headache that had returned with more macho. “I’m not having this conversation when I have a hangover.”

Hange snickered. “Suit yourself.”

 

Levi made sure that Hange’s hands were washed by the time the two of them got around to leaving for Erwin’s house. There were five flights of stairs from the apartment to the ground floor – it was a miracle Hange had managed to get him up a single step. Or maybe Hange just dragged him into the elevator to get up. Stupid Levi. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Wake up, you bastard! Hopefully a little fresh air would be able to clear his head.

If the smog emanating from the nearby expressway counted as fresh air. Levi wondered how Hange even slept at night with all the noise that must come from the ever-busy road. Or how Hange dealt with all the goddamn hipsters that seemed to exponentially multiply every time Levi found himself in Williamsburg. Just a quick glance down the block poured forth a picture of a man standing at the corner wearing orange tights and matching knickers. Across the street was a woman wearing tortoiseshell glasses bigger than her hands. Christ.

Levi climbed into the car without buckling the seat belt. Hange sat next to him soon after and started up the engine with a giddy smile.

“So, where to?”

Levi furrowed his eyebrows and considered the question. He had to have seen some signs last night when he was running about, right? When he had run down the block… dammit. He smacked himself with his hand, trying to remember.

“Fuck, let me think,” he muttered. Hange’s fingers drummed against the steering wheel, anticipating Levi’s answer. What train did Erwin mention he took? What neighborhood… it was some pretentiously gentrified shithole, something to do with oceans… motherfucker. “Shit.”

“Can’t remember?” Hange taunted. “Fine, we’ll just head back to the park I found you at and work from there. Can’t be that hard, can it?”

 

It was that hard. Upon arriving at the small park, Levi discovered he had no memory of how he had gotten there. All of his recollections were sewn together in patchy, ripped pieces with more holes than fabric. The more Levi tried to remember, the more his head ached and the less he wanted to do anything other than collapse and take another nap. However, Hange was undeterred.

“We’re gonna find this place if it’s the last thing we do, Levi,” Hange cheered as the car rolled to a stop at a red light. “C’mon, there’s gotta be something you recognize. That tree? Those houses? Hmm?”

“I can’t remember jackshit, Hange,” Levi grumbled. “I tried to buy a pack of cigarettes and at some point I thought beating up a fucking mailbox was a good idea. At the end of the night, I passed out on a park bench, threw up all over myself and probably pissed my pants like a fucking college underclassman at his first frat party. That’s it.”

“Did you beat up the mailbox or try to buy cigarettes first?”

“Uh.” Levi leaned his head against the window and slid backward as the car lurched forward. “Mailbox.”

“A USPS one?”

“Yeah.”

“Like that one over there?”

“Yep.”

“With the dried blood on it that, if I were given an hour or two, would match the stuff that was gushing out of your nose when I found you last night?”

“Guess so.”

Hange grinned and pulled into an empty spot on the curb and took the keys out of the ignition. “We can’t be that far off, then. Get out; time for a bit of walking.”

 

Once they’d found the mailbox (which, to Levi’s slight dismay, seemed to have suffered no damage at all), it only took Levi and Hange a few minutes to trace Levi’s steps back to the colossus that was Erwin’s house. None of the lights were on, but Erwin’s car still sat a few yards away. As Levi had guessed, he was probably asleep. The two climbed up the steps, but also as Levi had guessed, the door inside was locked.

“Okay, so we’re here,” Levi began, “got any ideas on how we’re going to get my shit back, Feynman?”

“Well, we have a couple of options.” With sleeves rolled back, Hange stooped down to the mat in front of the door and picked it up by a corner. “First, always check for the key under the mat. Never underestimate the power of crime novel clichés, Levi.”

“You think he’d actually be that stupid?”

Hange dropped the mat and stood back up, bearing no fruits of labor. “Apparently not. But, better we check now than realize later it’s been there all along.” Before Levi could react, Hange jumped up on the railing and clawed at the brick wall of the house for a good grip. “Our other option…”

“Break in through the window,” Levi said, expression as unimpressed as ever.

“Break in through the window.” Hange leered back at Levi with a demented smile. “Give me a bit of a boost?”

“What, can’t reach?” He groaned, but despite his qualms he came forward and pushed Hange toward the window. Hange landed a firm foot on the sill, but the other dangled to the ground, pulling Hange’s legs into a painful stretch.

“Owowowow!”

Levi clenched his teeth as his hands started to sweat. “I swear to _god_ , you’re going to wake the bastard up–”

“Then _help_ me!” Hange stressed.

“How the fuck am I–”

“There!” Hange gripped the top of the window and managed to pull the other leg up, body now bent in front of the glass. “Phew, that was close.”

“No kidding.” Levi ran down the steps and held his arms out in case Hange slipped, but with a minute or two and some questionably ethical methods, Hange climbed in without a scratch. Soon after, Levi’s bag came flying out for him to catch. “Oof. Be more careful with my shit, will you?”

“Sorry!” Hange called, voice growing more distant. “Where’d he put your coat?”

“Some closet by the door, I don’t know,” Levi responded, keeping his voice low. He bounced one heel up and down, impatient and anxious to just get going already; he needed a shitload of Tylenol and a shower, pronto. He heard several doors open and close, but no rustling of fabric or metal that indicated a find. “Hange?”

“Still looking! Damn, you people and your big-ass houses. Too many doors!” Levi strained to listen to Hange’s movements around the room, and froze when the footsteps did, too. “Y’know, I don’t think he’s home.”

“How could he not be? His car’s here.”

“There’s a handy-dandy thing called the train, sweetcheeks.”

Levi rolled his eyes. “Why would he be going out after getting wasted on god-knows-how-much whiskey?”

“Beats me. Hold on, coming out!” Levi’s coat emerged before Hange, which he took with a certain degree of relief. Hange came out soon after, looking no more frazzled than usual. Once Hange jumped off to go get the car, Levi climbed back up the steps to close the window; it was then that he realized Hange had torn away the rubber keeping the glass in place, making closing it impossible. He squeezed his eyes shut and sighed.

“Christ,” he muttered, walking down the stairs for the last time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hange, you're lucky Levi's a lawyer. Except he'd probably be the one to testify against you if you were ever caught dissecting a human arm or something.
> 
> By the way, thank you all for your wonderful kudos, bookmarks and comments! They are very much appreciated c:


	12. Chapter 12

Levi emptied his bag and coat and threw them both into the washing machine as soon as he got home. Everything seemed to be there: two fifties, two twenties, two tens in his wallet. Something about it bothered him, but his head was still aching too much for him to bother. He’d invited Hange in out of a guilty courtesy, but Hange passed on it; there were better experiments to conduct. When the front door closed, leaving the house in a blissful cloud of silence, Levi slumped against the wall and sighed in relief. Even though he’d only been gone about a day, the air smelled stuffy and dust flew into the air every time Levi moved something. He coughed as he sat down on the sofa.

 

The phone in the kitchen rang. Levi groaned and rolled over, bringing his knees up to his chest. Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, silence again. It didn’t beep to indicate a new voicemail, so Levi could only assume that it was just a telemarketer. He pressed his face into the couch cushions and tried to will the sickness in his stomach away.

 

The phone in the kitchen rang again. Levi grabbed a pillow and forced it over his head and let out a low whine. Ring, ring, ring, silence. It didn’t beep to indicate a new voicemail, so Levi could only assume that it was just a persistent telemarketer.

 

The phone in the kitchen rang a third time. Levi tore the pillow away from his face and dragged himself through the house. Ring, silence. He stood there with his fingers just touching the cradle as the red light on the top of the phone went on and off. It beeped to indicate a new voicemail. The sick feeling in his stomach switched gears and rose into his chest. His headache weighed his body down like he had ropes tying his ears to the floor. Levi took the phone back into the living room and lay back down on the couch. He clutched onto it with his thumb over a button, rubbing at the engraved symbol but never pressing hard enough to open the voicemail box.

_Just do it, you jackass,_ Levi barked at himself, expression firming up in frustration. _You know who it is. Just fucking press the button and listen to what he has to say. Maybe then you’ll feel less crappy and more pissed off at whatever superficial bullshit he’ll be trying to feed you._ He forced his thumb so far down that the button sank into its socket and crackled unpleasantly, but hey: at least he did it. Levi plugged in his PIN before placing the phone beside him to let it run itself dry.

 

_“Hello, this is the Democratic Party of America. As a previous donor, we would like to ask for another contribution for next year’s election in support of –”_ Levi jammed his thumb into the delete button, and listened to the next message. He probably left something last night.

 

_“Hey, Dr. Levi? It’s Kirschtein again, ehehe. I was just wondering if –”_ Levi failed spectacularly to give a shit. Next message.

 

_“Hello, is this Lehvee Acke–”_ Anyone mispronouncing his name he wanted no business with.

 

_“This is the research center for –”_ He had to have called last night.

 

_“Hi, this is a confirmation for your recent delivery from –”_

_“Hey, Levi, if you’re around we should go out to lunch so–”_

_“Levi, did you com–”_

_“This is the aca–”_

_“Greetings, I a–”_

_“Just a re–”_

_“End of new messages.”_

 

Levi stared at the screen of the phone until it went dim. He let his tight fist loosen into a flaccid palm. The phone dropped to the floor. Levi kept staring where it once was, unblinking. He needed something to drink. He didn’t feel like getting up. He grabbed up the pillow again and shoved it under his head, rolled over, and stared at the back of the couch. His stomach started complaining at him again, but the moaning of his heart drowned out its qualms and pressed at the back of his throat.

  
(At least the couch was more comfortable than the park bench.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ouch.


	13. Chapter 13

The room was filled with the warm glow of the setting sun by the time Levi woke up. His joints cracked as he got off the couch. To his drowsy luck, he stepped on the home phone that had dropped beforehand and, from the dreadful sound of plastic splitting, shattered it. He grumbled and closed his eyes, and went into the kitchen so he could grab the broom and dustpan. As he scooped up the mess, Levi regretted erring on the side of cheap when he had purchased the damn thing from Staples. Whatever; it wasn’t like anyone that mattered would call his home phone over his cellphone.

His nausea had subsided, thank god, but his mouth was still too dry for comfort. Upon reentering the kitchen he opened the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of water. He stood at the counter for a moment, staring at the cabinets as he drank, and _Could you settle for just some mouthwash, your Majesty?_ he stepped away from the counter, clenching the glass, then walked down the hallway and _What, got a daddy fetish all of a sudden? You’re a filthy man._

Levi set his glass down on the floor and leaned his head against the wall _Don’t tear it Could ask the same thing about my asshole hopefully sometime this year Did you get these as a business analyst too? Erwin Erwin Is that my name? What else would your name be, douchebag? Think about it Have you thought about it? About what taking a shit You're repulsive Saying things like that when both you and I know of all the lovely things I want to do to you_ He sighed and massaged his temples with the tips of his fingers. A steady pressure kneaded at the back of his eyes and pulsed in his sinuses _Why don’t you just shut your trap and do them, then You bastard! I_ might _want to be able to walk tomorrow Save it for next time Next time? Certainly_

“Fuck,” Levi breathed. His breath left condensation on the wall and his face grew clammy _Do you not like me, Levi? You sound like a child I wish you’d take me seriously Never mind it Let’s eat Don’t give me that What are you talking about? I already answered that question Do you even give a shit about me, or am I just a toy for you to play with? What is this relationship?_ Levi clenched his fists and ground them into the wall, his fingernails puncturing the meat of his palm and _Is that all you want to be? I don’t want to talk about this I figured you wouldn’t Why don’t you just leave? Maybe I fucking will_

Levi stepped away from the wall and climbed up the stairs to the third floor, then made a left turn into his office. It had the familiar chill to it that spurred Levi to fiddle with the thermostat on the wall to get the radiator running. He opened the curtains in front of the room’s singular window and let the sunlight flush out the dimness. A pile of paper slid to the floor as Levi rustled through the contents of his desk, opening and shutting the drawers in search of… there. Levi pulled out a half-empty box and shook out a cigarette, and lit it with a lighter standing on the shelf. He breathed in the smoke just as if it were air, and exhaled it out with his headache. The sunlight became more bearable on his glassy eyes, and by the time he crushed it out into an ashtray on the windowsill, his fatigue seemed a thing of the past.

 

The doorbell rang. Levi put his cigarettes and lighter in his front shirt pocket and adjusted his collar before heading downstairs. Probably just a delivery or something, or a kid walking around carrying a box of candy for some fundraiser. He was prepared to just take his shit and slam the door, but instead who greeted him was neither of the people he expected.

The two men shared an awkward glance as Levi processed who stood before him. Jaeger waved with a friendly smile. “Evening, Dr. Levi. You didn’t show up for lunch, so…,” he thrusted the papers in his hand toward Levi, “so I thought I’d just come here.” He sniffed the air, clearly smelling the cigarette smoke clinging to Levi. “If this is a bad time…?”

Levi continued to stare at him, lips pressed together. _Goddamn it_. He _knew_ there was something that he’d forgotten. He took the packet from Jaeger and waved a hand into the house as he turned around. “No, come in. My mistake for forgetting.” He walked a few steps, but not hearing a second pair of footsteps behind him, he looked over his shoulder to find Jaeger still standing there, looking surprised. “Are you coming in or not, Eren?”

“Uh, yeah!” Eren hurried in and left his shoes by the door. “I studied as much as I could yesterday, but I want to make sure I really have it covered.”

“Sure, sure.” Levi let Eren follow after him as he went into the kitchen and put a pot of water on the stove. “Drop your shit on the couch. Tea? Coffee?” Eren came into the kitchen, and instantly the room seemed much smaller. He was only about 4 inches taller than him, but still Levi bristled when he came up close behind him, hovering like an anxious mother.

“Tea’s fine,” Eren replied. “The final is next Monday, right?”

“Yeah. Going to do better this time?”

“Of course!” Eren exerted in a voice too loud for Levi’s ears.

“Christ, tone it down. Friends ever tell you you’re too eager for your own good?” Levi smacked Eren away with the back of his hand as he reached up to retrieve two mugs. “Quit hovering.”

“Sorry.” Eren stepped back a foot or two and resigned to lean against a nearby counter. An uncomfortable silence settled on their shoulders as Levi waited for the kettle to whistle so he could drink his tea. He idly drummed his fingers on the counter, still in the haze of the cigarette he had just a few minutes ago, until the water boiled and he and Eren moved into the living room.

As Eren placed the notes Levi had lent to him alongside his own notes, Levi sipped his tea and sighed. He leaned over and turned on a lamp; dusk had already fallen outside. “Start out with the practice questions,” Levi said, tapping a finger on a particular piece of paper on the table.

“I already answered them,” Eren replied. “Could you give me the answer key, though?”

Levi stared at him for a moment. “I’ll look through them right now.”

 

Far away, a clock tower struck nine; the last bell until morning. Levi’s head slumped into his palm as Eren flipped through the packets, mumbling to himself and asking the occasional question or two. The pot of water had been emptied and filled again long ago, and several used teabags populated a dish on the coffee table. Levi glanced at the digital clock under the television and sighed.

“Dr. Levi, what does this mean?” Eren leaned forward, pointing to a phrase on the paper with his pencil.

Levi glanced at it and growled, “ _Cadit quaestio_? Aren’t you taking Latin, Eren?”

“Well, yeah, but…,” he trailed off. “I’ll remember it next time.”

“It means ‘the question falls.’ Used when indicating that an issue has been resolved.” As he spoke, Eren diligently took down his every word. “Let me ask you a question, now,” Eren looked up at him, eyebrows furrowed, “how much do you even care about becoming a lawyer?”

“A lot, sir!” Eren replied. “More than anything else.”

“Then why don’t you ever show up to my lectures on time?”

Eren flinched. The creases in his face deepened in the lamp light. “It’s just because of the train, it always gets delayed…”

Levi aimed him an unimpressed frown. “Try lying to a law teacher, one more time. I dare you.”

“It’s true! And my roommates… they’re always screwing around with my crap to make me late.” He bowed his head and placed his pencil on the table. “Sorry.”

All that earned Eren was another frown, but this time with a shrug. “It’s your money you’re wasting. But tutoring isn’t going to help if you can’t even memorize simple Latin phrases like that.”

“I can! I’ll do better, Dr. Levi,” Eren pressed. “I can do this, really.”

Levi was silent for a moment as he leaned back into the couch and drank the last of his tea. “Then I better see you before I get to the classroom this week, Jaeger.” Eren nodded, eager. “No excuses. Even if you wake up with an awful case of diarrhea.”

“Yeah.” Eren made no move to pack up, still staring with firm eyes at Levi for more knowledge. Levi squirmed uncomfortably in his seat.

“It’s past 9 o’clock.”

“Is it?” Eren checked his watch and squinted. “It is, huh.” He turned back toward his papers and continued to write.

Did this kid have no sense of common social etiquette? No wonder his roommates supposedly fucked with him all the time. “Planning on wrapping it up any time soon. Jaeger?”

“No, I’m doing good! I can focus here without the guys blasting music or anything.”

Levi pressed his lips together and sighed. He lay back into the couch and crossed his arms. “Dorm?”

“Apartment,” Eren admitted. “Up around Lincoln Center. It’s pretty small, but it’s cheap for the location.”

“Why Lincoln Center, not the Lower East Side?” Levi asked. “Would make more sense when trying to get over to the school.”

“Oh, well, not everyone goes to NYU.” Eren put down his pencil and idly swished around the tea in its frail cup. “My friend Armin goes to Hunter. He just takes a bus to campus every day.” He stared off into empty space, biting his bottom lip and bouncing his leg up and down enough to make the floor shake. “He also plays, so he wants to be around that area.”

Levi nodded enough to seem interested. “What’s he play?” Eren continued to stare, not meeting Levi’s eyes. His cheeks started to turn red around the edges and Levi swore he was suppressing a smirk. He snapped his fingers a few times and said, “Hey, I asked you a question, dumbass. If you can’t pay attention now like hell you’re going to last through a three-hour lecture.”

“The banjolin.”

Levi blinked. Eren covered his mouth with his hand and snorted. “The what?”

“The banjolin.” Eren clicked his cup against the table a few times before letting go of it and banging his fist instead. “It’s the most annoying piece of shit. We all hate it. But he pays half the rent, so we put up with it.”

“The fuck kind of instrument is a banjolin?” Levi snorted as well, shaking his head back and forth. “What, he wants to play the banjolin at Lincoln Center?”

“Yep,” Eren snickered before stifling his laughter and returning to a firm deadpan. “It’s what he wants, though, so.” He tightened his lips and returned to his work. A cloud of guilt depressed Levi’s amusement and his heart grew heavy _I wish you’d take me seriously._

“Why do you want to become a lawyer, Eren?” Levi asked suddenly. Eren glanced up at him and let his pencil droop in his fingers again. A plane soared overhead and dulled the silence as Eren thought through the question and Levi picked up their empty teacups to bring into the kitchen.

“My mother,” Eren called after him. Levi placed the cups in the sink and ran the tap with the intention of coming back to the living room a second after, but Eren stood in the doorless entrance before he could. “She was, uh. Raped. And killed.” Levi breathed, but his blood turned into the lukewarm tea that still lay in the pot on the cold stove. “Some guy. He was a coworker who really shouldn’t have been allowed to have a gun. Must’ve bought it upstate or something.” Eren clenched his fists and grit his teeth, bristling at the shoulders so that his height grew by two inches. “All the evidence was set against him, but his stupid lawyer must’ve bribed the jury and judge, because he got off scott-free. He got off scott-free while we buried what was left of my mother.” His breath hissed as he exhaled through his nose. Levi didn’t notice until the base of his spine touched the corner of the counter that Eren had been edging closer to him, glaring at nothing in particular but slow enough in his advances that anyone could tell it was intentional. “And I swore I would make sure every rapist, every murderer would get the death sentence. Kill them all off so they don’t make more disgusting human beings just like them.” Eren’s lips relaxed, and the glossiness in his eyes faded away. Levi could feel his heart pounding. He opened his palms, and pushed Eren by the shoulders hard enough to make him stumble.

“That’s your solution?” Levi retorted, straightening his back and looking Eren in the eye. The confused look on his face only pissed him off more. “Punish rapists and murderers by killing them?”

“How else are they gonna stop?”

“They won’t. They’ll just make sure they’ll get away with it better.” Levi stepped up to Eren and backed him out of the kitchen, his own hands curling into white-knuckled fists. “You’re spending your hours here, taking up my fucking time so you can kill people? Why didn’t you just join the army, for fuck’s sake.”

Eren raised his hands, panic in his eyes and sweat beading up on his skin. Fear rolled off of him in shivers, and Levi used it to his advantage. “I didn’t--”

“I’m not wasting my energy on kids who don’t understand the role of the law and why the government doesn’t just kill off everyone that breaks the law. Want Washington to be the second Nazi Germany, shithead? Why don’t we just start rounding up everyone that ever got a speeding ticket and killing them off, too?” Levi snatched Eren’s notes from the table along with his bag, and shoved them into Eren’s chest. “Get out of here. You don’t know shit. Come back when you plan on being a soldier of law instead of a soldier of war.”

“I’m sor--”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Levi grabbed Eren by the arm and threw him into the vestibule, and his shoes after him. “Good night, Jaeger.”

He slammed the door before Eren could say, “Wait!”

 

Once he finished washing the cups, Levi checked his phone messages one more time. Only a text from Hange reminding him to set his alarm for the next morning. He sent back a prompt message for Hange to fuck right off. His study still smelled of smoke when he went in to close the curtains, but the lack of orange sunlight made the crumbles of a wasted cigarette in the ashtray all the less romantic. What was so romantic about smoking, anyway? It rotted a person from the inside out and made his semen taste like crap. He’d started in his second year of undergrad work, at some bachelor party for a vaguely familiar friend. He had just one or two that night, with a Bloody Mary made with Clamato juice instead of something actually bearable. But, it had helped him forget the paper he hadn’t started to write yet that was due two days from then.

When Levi threw his clothes into the laundry basket and finally rolled into the bed he last slept in two days ago, he drew his knees to his chest and took out the pillow from under his head. His head throbbed. _You're a slut Say please Erwin touch me What’s the word, Levi? Levi Levi Levi_ Levi clutched onto the pillow before flinging it away from him. He was being childish. What was he, a 15-year-old after his first breakup again? Enough of this. It was only a month.

  
He was asleep by the time a car pulled up in front of his house, and the screen of his phone lit up with three new voicemails.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> William Faulkner is a lifestyle. However, being gay as hell and having a big-ass crush on your 5'3'' law teacher isn't.
> 
> Over 4000 hits! And almost 300 kudos, goddamn. Thank y'all for your patience and support, but please -- it is super rude to say a chapter is too short or the content is not enough. I consider each chapter's length deliberately and separate scenes as I see fit. The content comes when it comes.
> 
> But rest assured -- you'll get your porn again. 8)


	14. Chapter 14

_“I’m sorry. Not for voicing my opinion – I sorely needed to voice it – and not for kicking you out – you walked out on your own accord, rather than have a legitimate conversation with me – but for not going after you. Given that I accidentally broke a dish, I did need to deal with that first… or at least my intoxicated mind seemed to think so. By the time I went looking for you, you were far gone. I wasn’t about to hop into my car and go on a search while under the influence, because getting myself into an accident probably wouldn’t have helped the situation._

_“I’m sorry. That wasn’t a real apology. I’m sorry for bringing up sensitive topics when neither of us were in any state to actually discuss them without getting angry at each other. And for not bringing it up when this whole… debacle started. But – and yes, I realize that everything after ‘but’ is bullshit – I’m not about to have my feelings thrown around, either. I don’t… I want this to work. I’m not keen on giving up on a person who never ceases to intrigue me. But I’m not going to linger if I’m unwanted._

_“I want to see you again this Saturday. It’s supposed to snow this week, so the piano may be taken out of the park before long. I’ll wait at the fountain anyhow, at the usual time. If you’re willing to try again… I’ll see you then._

_“Additionally, I’d left a key in the mailbox by the door on purpose. I wasn’t keen on coming home to find my front window missing, but, luckily, nothing was taken except your things, so I can only assume you came back to take them yourself. If not, well, you might have some trouble getting them back._

_  
“I’ll see you soon, hopefully.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Erwin, you smooth criminal.
> 
> FYI: this fic will be going on a semi-hiatus after the next chapter (which I will post very soon!) due to upcoming travel. I will be back to regular posting by the end of the month!
> 
> Happy 4th to all of my American readers, by the way. May this chapter bless you with freedom and patriotism. To the rest of the world – may this chapter make up for the sounds of fireworks heard 'round the world.
> 
> (Especially you, Canada. God bless.)


	15. Chapter 15

It snowed that Wednesday, but by Friday it had all melted away under a warm front. Levi arrived at the park on Saturday at 4:00 PM to find the piano missing, along with the familiar face that he’d come to associate with it. He folded his arms and sighed into his wool scarf. Children played about in the cold mud, splashing their new shoes with muck to the eternal dismay of their parents. The fountain in the middle of the park bubbled invitingly, but the water was too cold for anyone to be tempted to wade into it. Levi sat on one of its walls, crossing an ankle over his knee. He took out his phone and found several emails from students panicked over the due date of their final essay, all of which he archived to busy himself over later. He tried to work, but regardless of how quiet the park was or how nice the day was, Levi couldn’t keep his eyes on the white sheets of paper. Either his eyelids drooped, or he had in itch behind his ear that needed scratching, or some bird or squirrel in a tree caught his eye and dragged his attention away. A woman sat on a park bench playing the saxophone a few meters away, with her case lying open between her feet. She was playing some jazz tune that people would listen to on dreary days, and though it was hardly a dreary day – the sun’s haze bathed everything in a pastel yellow – Levi felt the air weigh down his shoulders as he listened. He took a $10 bill out of his wallet and dropped it in the box before moving back to his seat.

 

4:30 PM. Levi stared at the massive arch that signified the entrance to the park. The sculpted figures near the top seemed to stare down at everyone present, eyes cold and scrutinizing. A couple lingered on top of the arch, taking pictures and peering over the edge as if they were at the top of the Empire State Building. They laughed; they hugged; they shared a kiss and disappeared behind the small ledge. The clouds had begun to roll in and fill the empty blue sky with dynamic shades of grey. Levi reached into his bag and felt around for his umbrella to make sure he’d brought it. He did. His stomach growled, and he checked his watch. Another half hour, and he would leave to go eat dinner.

 

5:00 PM. The sun sank behind the tall buildings of Lower Manhattan, but no one would’ve known from the denseness of the clouds overhead. The street lamps came on and the fountain behind Levi drained as people walked out of the park and into local restaurants, just as hungry as he was. Levi burrowed further into his scarf and pulled his arms into the sleeves of his peacoat. A gaggle of teenagers shuffled into the park from the northern gate, smelling heavily of marijuana. One of them had a bright red mohawk and face piercings that glittered in the lamplight. Another clambered on top of a third and commanded him to give her a piggyback ride around the park; the rest chased after them, making even noise to disturb a flock of pigeons from their resting spots in a tree. Levi sniffled as his nose and cheeks grew colder with the weather. Another half hour.

 

5:27 PM. Levi stood and shook the stiffness out of his joints. He took his time cracking his knuckles, his shoulders, his back, his ankles and his toes, though he could barely feel the latter two with how cold he was. Some smooth fucking shithead, making him wait in the goddamn cold for what, an hour and a half? If he couldn’t be bothered to show up, why would he expect Levi to bother himself waiting for him? Levi grabbed his bag and took another glance at the shivering saxophone player on the bench. She waved to him and played a small goodbye song that pulled his spirits up by an inch or so. He allowed himself to smile to show his gratitude, and turned to leave the park.

Without thinking, he took the long path to the furthest exit from where he once sat. Only a few people remained in the park: the teenagers from before, who had found a couple of benches by a fenced-off garden to smoke the last of their weed; a man wearing a wool cap walking a massive Great Dane (how did people even keep pets that big in the city?); and a kid bundled up in a puffy jacket, trying to skateboard on the frozen walkways. Levi avoided them all, clinging to his bag like any one of them would try to steal it from him.

Figures, anyways. Erwin played him for a damn fool, didn’t he? Well, he guessed the phrase “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” really did come into play when life decided to shove its foot up his ass. His stomach tightened and all at once the hungry rumble that bothered him before was a mere memory. _Maybe I should quit making a fool of myself and just go home_ , Levi thought just seconds before walking himself right into a brick wall of a man.

He stumbled backward, a sharp retort at the ready before he peered up to find a familiar face and a bouquet of wilting flowers. A few red petals fell to the ground and made the grey cement all the more colorless.

 

“Levi,” Erwin greeted, taken aback by the abrupt clash. He glanced down at the flowers and disappointment seeped into his voice. “The train was very crowded, must have crushed them–”

“Why are you here?” Levi asked. He glared up at Erwin like he would any other time, but it was the cold that made the skin around his eyes turn a blotchy red, the _cold_. The air was like ice around Levi.

Erwin drew his lips into a line and tilted his head to one side. “Didn’t you get my messages?”

“Yeah, I got them.” Levi stepped forward and Erwin stepped back, one with fists clenched and the other with palms falling open in surrender. “I got them loud and clear. Why the fuck are you here?”

“Why are _you_?”

“Don’t turn this back around on me.”

“I didn’t come here to fight, if that’s what you’re asking,” Erwin protested. Other people were starting to look at them oddly. _Fuck ‘em,_ Levi thought. “I came here to reconcile with you. I’m assuming you’re here for the same reason.”

“No reconcilliation is going to do jackshit if you don’t tell me why you’re here.”

“I just _told_ you!”

Erwin’s raised voice made Levi feel all the colder. The blotches on his cheeks grew and burned. If he had eaten anything beforehand he would have vomited it up already.

“Why are you bothering if I’m this cruel, emotionless piece of shit?”

“I don’t think you’re–”

“Oh, please, tell me another story,” Levi growled. “You didn’t even apologize for ‘voicing your opinion,’ asshole.” He raised his fist and convinced himself not to bite it. “You’re damn passive aggressive, you know that? Why don’t you say what you mean before I kick the shit out of you?”

“If I said what I meant out loud you’d think I was being ridiculous, Levi.”

“You’re already being more ridiculous than I can bear, so why don’t you just spit it out, Erwin?”

“It’s not something I can just spit out.”

“I don’t give a shit!” Levi pushed past Erwin, fire burning in his shoes. His legs tingled as his desire to run as far away as he could as fast as he could grew, but he anchored himself to the ground long enough to hiss, “You let me pass out on a park bench in a pool of my own vomit.”

“I didn’t _let_ you,” Erwin said. “I had no idea where you went. You think if I had known I would’ve left you there anyway?”

Levi threw him a look over his shoulder. “You were seconds away from trying to stab me with that kitchen knife, you fucker.”

The air grew impenetrably colder. The park was empty. The bouquet of red, red flowers dropped to the ground.

“I wasn’t.”

“How do you know?” Levi snarled. “You were drunk off your ass. What do you remember?” He looked away again, and stared hard at the changing traffic light at the corner of the park. Taxis bickered their ways down the crowded streets. He turned around. “You have three seconds to tell me why I should even fucking bother.”

“Why _you_ should bother?” Levi tensed up against Erwin’s voice. The hairs on the back of his neck stood much straighter than they did on that night a week ago. “I’m standing here wondering why in fucking hell I’m bothering.”

“So tell me why you’re here. We’ve come around full circle.”

“Maybe it’s just because I love you, have you considered that?”

 

Levi blinked. The feeling in his body drained to numbness. The strength in which he clenched his fists dissipated into frailness. Erwin stepped forward and took one of Levi’s now loose hands and kissed the back of it.

“What? After just a couple of months of first speaking to me?” Levi argued.

“Haven’t you ever fallen in love with a stranger?” Erwin asked. “Seen a person on the train, or in a café reading a book? A person just minding their own business, but you can’t help but be attracted to them?”

“No.” His heart skipped with the one-worded lie. “That’s stupid.”

Erwin dropped his hand and failed to meet his gaze. “I told you you’d think I was being ridiculous.”

“I didn’t say ridiculous.”

 

They were close enough for the fraying bits of wool on their coats to cling together. Erwin hesitated to touch Levi, but the more he looked down at Levi the more Levi wanted to have those hands rubbing his shoulders and thumbing the shaved part of his head. Instead, he fell forward into Erwin’s chest, and brought his arms around his waist. His eyes closed, blotting out the dim light of the street lamps, and he breathed in his cologne. Slower than Levi would’ve liked, Erwin’s arms came around him and hugged him tightly. The coldness and numbness were filled by sweet warmth that he could have swallowed like a cup of tea. Levi clenched his teeth together and fought back the swelling lump in the back of his throat.

“Are you crying, Levi?”

Levi kept his hand from smacking Erwin’s back. “That was a yawn.”

He could hear Erwin’s light chuckle come from deep in his chest. “I believe you.”

“Damn straight.”

“I’m sorry.”

Levi sighed into Erwin’s coat and clung onto his torso just a bit tighter. “I left your coat at my colleague’s house.”

“I was just about to ask where that went.”

“Sorry.”

Erwin slid his hand up Levi’s back and pet the back of his head, dancing over his thin hair like Levi would pull away at any moment. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Good.” At that moment, Levi’s stomach growled loud enough for Erwin to hear. Erwin snorted and sniggered into his hair. “Let’s get food.”

“Same place as before?”

“Yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... And with that, a hiatus ensues.
> 
> Thanks for all the support and love so far, yo; seeing all the kudos and wonderful comments make me smile every time. Next on LWtPS – probably sex. And maybe some cuddling.
> 
> For now, though, see y'all on the other side 8)


	16. Chapter 16

The entire world outside was white. Rugs of snow covered every surface as only curtains more came down, shimmering in the daylight. The radiator in the corner hissed, emitting a warm haze that made Levi sweat. The whiteness from the outside served as the only light source within the small bedroom that set shadows and lit up the pale skins of the two men lying in bed. The desk sitting against the wall appeared shaken: trinkets lay dilapidated, pens were scattered across the polished wood, and piles of books slowly fell apart. By force of gravity, a heavier book slipped and dropped to the floor. At the sound, Levi flinched and opened his eyes.

He lay on the bed curled up like a child, his knees touching his chest and arms held close to his own body. The thick comforter had made its way under and around him in a tight ball during the night, so when he shifted closer to the man beside him he shivered at the freezing touch of his legs and toes. Erwin clung to him like a teddy bear, one hand knitted into his hair and the other holding his waist like it was the steel bar of a ladder. Levi rubbed the sand from his eyes with his pinkies and yawned.

“Hey,” he muttered, glancing up at Erwin. His terribly blue eyes opened as if he’d been awake all along. Levi rested his head against his clavicle. “‘Morning.”

“Good morning.” Erwin ripped the seams of his fingers from Levi’s head and rethreaded them, palms clammy with sweat. “Did you sleep well?”

Levi nodded against him and squirmed around so he was up against Erwin’s bare chest, however hairy it was. “Dreamed of eating a big-ass sandwich.”

“Really?” Erwin chuckled. “You know Freud said that dreams about food imply a need for sexual satisfaction.” Levi frowned at the light that appeared in his eyes that almost always prefaced an erection. He rolled over in hopes that would fend him off.

“Freud said that all men want to fuck their mothers too, but I don’t see either of us committing incest,” Levi scoffed.

“I suppose not, unless you’d like me to bring out the dresses and wigs.” Erwin changed shape around Levi, sliding his arms around his waist now and tracing his hands up and down his chest. Levi snorted at him and smacked the back of his hands with his fingertips.

“Very funny.” Erwin’s lips that ghosted down his neck tugged his head back around for a kiss and yep, that was an erection pressing up against his ass. “For someone who’s bordering on his forties, you don’t seem to need any Viagra.”

“I’m thirty-seven.” Though Levi turned back around again, Erwin continued to kiss up and down his neck and massage his chest. “It’s morning wood. You don’t have to do anything about it.”

“Good, I don’t feel like it.” Levi sat up in bed and the blankets pooled around his bare waist. He stretched his arms above him and cracked his neck; Erwin wrapped his arms around him and nuzzled into his torso. “My ass still hurts from last night, thank you.”

Erwin kissed Levi’s hip. “You liked it.”

“Sure, doesn’t mean I’m up and ready to fuck the next morning.” Levi glanced around the room and a distasteful frown grew on his face. “My room looks like fucking Cum-nado passed through it.” He glanced at the amorous man still clinging to him. Erwin showed no signs of moving, so Levi sighed and slumped back against the soft pillows between him and the headboard of his bed. He idly watched the puffy snowflakes drift past the room’s only window before checking the clock. It was already past ten. His heart throbbed as a small surge of panic overtook him – did he have to teach today? – but as his memory came back to him, he shook away the feeling with ease.

“Happy New Year,” Levi mumbled. He thumbed a loose piece of Erwin’s hair back into place. “Did we wait until past midnight to fuck like filthy goddamn animals?”

A moment passed as Erwin considered the question, though to Levi it looked more like he was taking a second to memorize the topography of his left thigh. “I know that we finished the champagne around 11.”

“God, I’m surprised we actually managed to use a condom. Where’d you throw it, anyway?”

“Floor.”

“I hope you step on it if you don’t pick it up and put it into the trashcan.”

Somewhere in the room, a text tone went off. Levi instinctively swung his arm over to the table beside his bed and checked his phone.

“It’s mine,” Erwin said a second after, finally separating himself from Levi and shuffling across the room to where he’d discarded his pants. He took out his phone from his back pocket and squinted in the late morning light. Levi thought to check his email anyway, since he hadn’t last evening.

“A Blackberry? Haven’t seen one of those since 2008,” Levi remarked, indicating Erwin’s phone. Erwin didn’t respond as his thumbs tapped away at the small buttons. He frowned. “Something wrong?”

Erwin failed to look up. “Nothing.”

“You’re lying to me.”

“It’s just…,” Erwin pressed his lips together, continuing to type out a long message with his eyebrows furrowed, “business.”

Levi placed his phone back onto the side table and climbed out of bed. He went over to his closet and grabbed a thick sweater and pair of boxers; both were the same shade of maroon. “A new client?”

More hurried typing preceded Erwin’s response. Levi sighed as he put on his clothes and opened the bedroom door. “I’m going downstairs to make breakfast,” he said, gesturing to the staircase across the hallway. “Care to join me?”

Again, busy silence. Levi stared at Erwin for a few moments longer than he would have otherwise, a hand holding onto the doorframe and its fingers tracing the imperfections in the wood. Erwin continued to squint and type. “Your dick is small,” Levi tried.

“Yes, I’ll be down in a minute,” came Erwin’s reply, as the man himself turned away and sat back down on the bed. “Just need to make a phone call.” Levi’s nails picked at the wood and his jaw went tight before he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him louder than he’d meant.

 

Fifteen minutes passed and two cups of tea were drunk before Erwin came downstairs, fully dressed. Levi himself sat on the couch with his laptop in hand, entertaining himself with a small flash game; he’d finished all his grading after Christmas, so other than preparing lesson plans and helping the occasional student over email, he had not much to do. He looked up to find Erwin just disappearing into the kitchen, only to see him come back out seconds later, eyes cloudy and palms clammy.

“I didn’t make breakfast,” Levi called to him. “Thought it’d be ice by the time you decided to get your ass down here and acknowledge the presence of your own boyfriend.”

“Please, not now, Levi,” Erwin snapped. He went out into the entrance hallway, and Levi set down his laptop to follow him. The front door was halfway open and Erwin was bent over, fiddling with the laces on his boots and struggling to get his coat on as if he was having a gun held to his head.

“Really, it’d be great if I could get a little insight.” Levi crossed his arms and leaned on the nearest wall. “Any minute now.”

“It’s just work-related things, alright?” came another bitter response. Erwin buttoned up his coat and pulled open the front door all the way. He looked over his shoulder as he put on the familiar brown and yellow ski hat and braced himself for the cold. “I’ll call you later, Levi. Happy New Year.” He walked down the stairs, disappearing from the doorway as the door itself swung shut.

“Yeah.” Levi rubbed his arms in the cold breeze that had come in from the outside and considered turning up the thermostat some. “Happy New Year, all right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops, this was a month late. Have some homosexuals on a snowy winter morning, with a side of Erwin being his classic workaholic self. 
> 
> Just an FYI to all, updates will now be coming in slower as the new school year starts in good ol' 'Murica. But not to fear – there's plenty more from where this came from. 8)


End file.
